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JEAN BAPTISTE LEMOINE DE BIENVILLE. 

"The Father of the Louisiana Purchase." 



^ 

^ 



THE STORY 



OF THE 



Louisiana Purchase. 



BY 



Virgil A. Lewis, M. A. 



Ex-State Superintendetit of Free Schools of West Virginia; 
Me^nber Trans-Allegheny Historical Society; Member 
American Historical Association; Author of 
a General '''History of West Virginia;'" '"His- 
tory and Government of West Virginia ,'' etc. 



ST. LOUIS: 

Woodward & Tiernan Printing Co. 

1903. 



THE LfBKARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Received 

SEP 18 1903 

t Copyright Entry 
^SS Cu XXc No 
COPY d. 



copyeight, 1908, by vlrgil a. lewis, 
Mason, Wkst Va. 






The Author's Preface. 



The present is eminently a proper time in which to pre- 
pare the ''Story of the Louisiana Purchase," for a cen- 
tury ago that region was largely inhabited by wild beasts 
and savage men. The issuance of this little volume falls 
fittingly into the one hundredth anniversary of the trans- 
fer of that vast domain to the United States; little 
apology should, therefore, be made for the publication of 
a work of its kind at this time. Whatever may be the de- 
fects in its composition and arrangement, the subject 
must be one of much interest, and, therefore, a justifica- 
tion for the appearance of the work. It is a theme which 
will grow in interest in the future, and thus will be added 
an increasing charm to the story. 

It contains a succinct account of the principal events 
in the annals of the region known to American history for 
a hundred years as the Louisiana Purchase, and it is fit- 
ting that these should come vividly to the minds of the 
people of the United States in this its centennial year. 
This purchase more than doubled the area of our country 
at that time, and made possible the later extension of our 
boundaries to the Pacific Coast. 

It may be said that the Louisiana Purchase has a litera- 
ture of its own : that is true, and this narrative has been 
written from a great mass of matter pertaining to that 
region, now easy of access to all students, but not at all 
available to general readers. Much of the material on 
which this volume is based is to be found in the publica- 



4 THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

tions of the American Government. Among these are 
the ''Annals of Congress," containing the debates and 
proceedings of the Congress of the United States ; 
Poore's "Federal and State Constitutions and Colonial 
Charters;" Waite's ''American State Papers and Docu- 
ments ;" the "Diplomatic Correspondence of the Office of 
the Secretary of State," from 1800 to 1803, inclusive; 
the "Treaties and Conventions between the United States 
and other Powers since July 4, 1776;" together with the 
reports and journals of explorers and travelers, such as 
those of Lewis and Clark, Pike, Dunbar, Long, and 
others. 

In addition to the foregoing, the works of many au- 
thors who have had access to original sources of informa- 
tion, have been carefully examined and data compiled 
therefrom. Of such are Du Pratz, La Harpe, Shea, Mar- 
gry, Parkman, Monette, Marbois, Flint, Gayarre, Martin, 
Bonner, Windsor and Coues, with the authors of the his- 
tories of States in and adjoining the Louisiana Purchase, 
and others far too numerous to be cited here. 

It is, therefore, believed that in the following pages 
there will be found the internal evidence of that re- 
search so necessary to make a volume of unimpeachable 
history, however humble it may be. Its preparation, in- 
stead of being a task, has been a labor of love, for the 
theme — that of history — is one in which the author finds 
constant pleasure. Cordially he sends the "Story of the 
Louisiana Purchase" to a generous public, w^hose ap- 
proval he hopes to win. xr a t 

Point Pleasant, West Virginia. 



The Publisher's Preface. 



On the 4th of May, 1903, the author visited the Admin- 
istration Building of the World's Fair, at St. Louis, for 
the purpose of submitting his manuscript of the "Story 
of the Louisiana Purchase" for examination. He was 
directed by Hon. Walter B. Stevens, the Secretary of the 
W^orld's Fair Company, to place it in the hands of Colonel 
Samuel Williams, of the Press and Publicity Department, 
and this was done, that gentleman kindly promising to 
give it a most careful reading. This he did, and on the 
9th of May ensuing, Mr. Stevens wrote the author com- 
municating the report of Col. Williams and said : 

St. Louis, U. S. A., May 9, 1903. 

Dear Sir — I have submitted to Mr. Samuel Williams of the 
Press and Publicity Department, perhaps the best informed man 
in the organization of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Com- 
pany upon the history of the Louisiana Purchase, your "Story 
of the Louisiana Purchase," and have asked from him an ex- 
pression of opinion upon the manuscript. I think there can be 
no objection to giving the opinion of Mr. Williams upon your 
work. 

Respectfully, 

Walter B. Stevens, Secretary. 
Mr. Virgil A. Lewis. 



6 Tim ri'Hi.isiiiiK's I'k'i'j-.tcn. 

TIic report of Mr. Williams as lliiis submitted to the 
author 1)v Mr. Stevens, was as follows: 

For SKruKTAKV W. B. Stkvkns: 

(Report (in llio "Story of the Louisiana I'nrrliaso.") 

Mr. Secretary — I have read (he nianuseripl of Prof. Lewis' 
"Story of ihe Louisiana Pnrehase." and have found it a sueeinct 
and unpretentious hut a very full and clear statement of the ma- 
terial and interesting facts of Louisiana Colonial history, and 
of the Purchase Treaty, with accounts also of the Territorial 
history of Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri after i8o,r. the 
Burr Conspiracy and the New Madrid earthquake, all gleaned 
from fountain head and indispnted sourees. 

Respectfully, 

(Signed) Samuf.i. Willtams. 

Such is the verdict of the hii;hesl authority as to the 
aocuracv and merit of this little voliuue. 



Table of ContenTvS. 



YuE Louisiana Liki iiase 15 

CHAP ILK 11. 
Faki.y Spaniakiks in iHK Louisiana Puiu hasf. 21 

(:iiArri-:iv iii. 

EXI'LORATION AN!) SliTTI.F.MENT OF NeW FrANTK — FlRST AT- 
TEMPT TO Colonize the Louisiana Purchase 29 

Cll WVVK 1\ 
I'lKsr PKintANFNT Sftti.fment I'F Tin: Mississirn \ \i 1 fv . . . 45 

CHAPTER V. 

liiE Loiisiwv Purchase Gkantfd ro Anihonv Ckozet . . . 55 

CllAPri':R \ 1. 

PuK Louisiana Purchase Under the West Indies Com- 
pany, and the Company of the Indies 00 

CHAPTER \ 11 
rin; Louisiana Purchase Under Royal Government ;;S 



8 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Louisiana Purchase Ceded to Spain 93 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Louisiana Purchase Under the Spanish Dominion ... 105 

CHAPTER X. 
The Louisiana Purchase Retroceded to France 126 

CHAPTER XI. 

The United States Endeavoring to Secure Control of the 
Mississippi River 132 

CHAPTER XII. 

Negotiations Leading up to the Purchase of Louisiana 
BY THE United States — The Treaty of Paris — ^The Con- 
ventions 157 

/ CHAPTER XIIT. 

Spain Opposes the Cession — Ratification of the Treaty 
and Conventions — Legislation by Congress Relating to 
THE Louisiana Purchase 187 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The United States in Possession of the Louisiana Pur- 
chase — Civil Government Established Therein 204 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Expedition of Lewis and Clark to the Pacific Ocean 
— Other Explorations in the Louisiana Purchase 220 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 9 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Burr-Blennerhassett Conspiracy — The Beginnings 
OF Literature in the Louisiana Purchase — Miscellany. .242 

CHAPTER XVH. 
The Earthquake of New Madrid in 181 i 273 

CHAPTER XVHL 

The First States Formed Within the Louisiana Pur- 
chase 278 

APPENDIX A. 
The Cession of the Louisiana Purchase. 287 

APPENDIX B. 

Lieutenant William Clark's Letter — First Published 
Account of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 290 

APPENDIX C. 

Compensation to Lewis and Clark and their Companions 
ON Their Expedition to the Pacific Coast 297 

APPENDIX D. 
Poem Commemorative of the Lewis and Clark Expedition .299 



10 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



FRONTISPIECE — Portrait of Jean Baptiste Lemoine de 



Bienville. 



MAPS. 



Map Showing Louisiana Purchase 19 

Map of the Island of Orleans 125 

SKETCHES. 

De Soto on the Banks of the iMississiPPi River 26 ' 

Statue of LaSalle, in Lincoln Park, Chicago 40 ' 

Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Clark Holding a Council 

WITH the Indians 225 

Ground Plan of Fort Mandan 227 

Captain Lewis in Indian Costume 230 - 

PORTRAITS. 

RuFus King 133 

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison 144 

Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe 163 

Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the French 1 

Republic I 

General Alexandre Berthier , ^ 

Francois Barbe Marbois j 

William Charles Cole Claiborne ^ 

General James Wilkinson / ^^"- 

Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William 

Clark 220 

Patrick Gass 236 ^ 

Aaron Burr and Harman Blennerhassett 242 "* 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. U 



Periods in the History of the Louisiana Purchase, 

Together with the Names and Dates of 

Administration of the Several, 

Governors Thereof. 



PERIODS. 



Early Spanish Explora- 
"<^NS From 1527, to ,1543. 

Voyages and Discoveries 

OF THE French - 1524," 1686. 

Original French Settle- 
ments " ^1686. " Sept. 12,1712. 

Crozet's Grant for Louis- 

i^^N'^ " Sept. 12, 1712, " Aug. 23, 1717. 

The Charter of the West 

Indies Company - Sept. 6, 1717, " April 10, 1732. 

The Royal Government. . " April 10, 1732, " Aug. 18. 1769. 

The Spanish Dominion.. ' Aug. 18,1769, " Nov. 30,1803. 

Last French Possession.. " Nov. 30,1603, " Dec. 20,1803. 

The American Occupa- 
tion " Dec. 20, 1803, '' present time. 



12 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



» 



THE FRENCH GOVERNORS OF LOUISIANA. 

Antoine Lemoine de Sau- 
VOLLE From Feb. lo, 1699, to Aug. 22, 1701. 

Jean Baptiste Lemoine de 
Bienville " Aug. 22, 1701, " May 17, 1713. 



GOVERNORS UNDER CROZET'S CHARTER. 

Lamothe de Cadillac From May 17, 1713, to Mar. g, 1717. 

M. De L'Epinay " Mar. 9,1717, "Mar. 9,1718. 



GOVERNORS UNDER THE WEST INDIES COMPANY. 

Jean Baptiste Lemoine de 
Bienville From Mar. 9, 1718, to Jan. 16, 1724. 

Dugue de Boisbriant, ad 
interim '' Jan. 16,1224, "Aug. 9,1726. 

M. Perkier " Aug. 9, 1726, " Jan. i, 1733. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 13 



GOVERNOR^ UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT. 

Jean Baptiste Lemoine de 

Bienville From Jan. i, 1733, to May 10, 1743. 

Pierre Francois Marquis 

de Vaudreuil " May 10, 1743, " Feb. 9, 1753. 

Louis BlLLOUART DE KeR- 

LEREC " Feb. 9, 1753, " June 29, 1763. 

D'Abbadie " June 29, 1763, " Feb. 4, 1765. 

M. AuBRY " Feb. 4,1765, "Aug. 18,1769. 



THE SPANISH GOVERNORS AND CAPTAINS-GENERAL 
OF THE PROVINCE OF LOUISIANA. 

(Resident at New Orleans.) 

Don Juan de Ulloa From Mar. 5, 1766, to Oct. 31, 1768. 

Count Alexander O'Reilly " Aug. 18, 1769, " , 1770. 

Don Antonio Maria Bu- 
CARELY, ad interim. " 1770, " Aug. 17, 1772. 

Don Luis de Unzaga " Aug. 17,1772, "Jan. 1,1777. 

Don Bernardo Galvez " Jan. i, 1777, *' , 1785. 

Don EsTEVAN MiRO " ,1785, "Dec. 30,1791. 

Don Francisco Luis Hec- 
tor, Marquis de Caron- 
delet " Dec. 30,1791, "July 26,1797. 

Don Manuel Gayoso de 
Lemos " July 26,1797," ,1799. 

Marquis de Casa Calvo, 
ad interim " , 1799, " , 1601. 

Don Juan Manuel Salcedo " June . ., 1801, " Nov. 30, 1803. 



14 TABLE OF COhrTENTS. 

SPANISH LIEUTENANT GOVERNORS OF UPPER 
LOUISIANA. 

(Resident at St. Louis.) 

Don Pedro Piernas From Nov. 29, 1770, to , 1775 



Francisco Cruzat " , 1775, " 

Don Ferdinando Leyba. . . . " ,1778, " 

Francisco Cruzat " , 1780, " 

Don Manuel Perez " 1788. " 

Zenon Trudeau. " , 1793, " 

Carlos DeLassus '' , 1798, " Mar. 9 



1778 
1780 
1788 

1793 
1798 
1804 



THE AMERICAN GOVERNOR OF THE LOUISIANA 

PURCHASE. 

William Charles Cole 
Claiborne From Dec. 20. 1803, to Oct. i. 1804. 



/( 



/<^c ^ ir ( ? f ^ 



THE STORY 

OF THE 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Louisiana Purchase. 

What is known in American history as the Louisiana 
Purchase is a region of vast extent. Its boundaries were 
long unknown. By the terms of the treaty of Paris, in 
1763, the middle of the Mississippi was made the dividing- 
line between the British and Spanish possessions down to 
where the thirty-first degree of north latitude crosses the 
river — that is, to the northern boundary of what was then 
West Florida. This was continued as the dividing line 
between the United States and the Spanish possessions 
west of the Mississippi by the treaty of 1783, and con- 
firmed by that of San Lorenzo between Spain and the 
United States in 1795. 

When Spain retroceded Louisiana to France, the third 
article of the treaty of St. Ildefonso, concluded October t. 
1800, declared that Spain ceded Louisiana to France, 



16 THE STORY OF THE 

'Vith the same extent it now has in the hands of Spain, 
and that it had when France possessed it." Nor were 
bounds more definitely expressed in the treaty conckided 
between France and the United States, April 30, 1803. It 
was then declared that "the French Republic cedes to the 
United States the Province of Louisiana, with the same 
extent as it had when France possessed it before and when 
in the hands of Spain." During the negotiation of this 
treaty, Robert R. Livingston, one of the American minis- 
ters spoke of the indefinite boundaries of the Province, 
and Napoleon remarked that "if an obscurity did not al- 
ready exist, it would, perhaps, be good policy to put one 
there." 

Indeed, after the title to the Louisiana Purchase had 
vested in the United States, the authorities knew almost 
nothing of its boundaries. It Was spoken of in Congress 
in 1803, as "This new immense, unbounded world." On 
the 8th of March, 1804, a resolution of that body declared 
that "It is believed, besides the tracts on the east side of 
the Mississippi, to include all the country which lies to 
the westward between that river and the mountains that 
stretch from the North to the South, and divide the waters 
running into the Atlantic from those which empty into the 
Pacific Ocean ; and beyond that chain between the terri- 
tories of Great Britain on the one side, and of Spain on 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 17 

the other side to the South Sea" — the Pacific Ocean. 
Thus early were the States of Idaho, Oregon and Wash- 
ington claimed by Congress as a part of the Louisiana 
Purchase. 

Some of the members of Congress who were opposed to 
the ratification of the treaty attacked it because of the 
vagueness of boundary. John Randolph admitted all that 
these opponents claimed, and replied that this subject of 
boundary was one to be discussed and settled with Spain 
in after years. In this he was correct, for the western 
boundar}' of tlie Louisiana Purchase was not defined until 
done by the terms of the treaty between the United States 
and Spain, concluded February 22, 1819, when the boun- 
dary between the two nations, on the west side of the Mis- 
sissippi, was defined as follows: 

''Beginning on the (julf of Mexico, at the mouth of the 
River Sabine, in the sea, and continuing north along the 
western Ijank of that river to the 32d degree of latitude ; 
thence by a line due north to the degree of latitude where 
it strikes the Rio Roxo of Nachitoches, or Red River; 
thence following the course of the Rio Roxo westvv'ard to 
the degree of longitude 100 west from London, and 23 
west from Washington ; thence crossing the said Red 
River, and running thence by a line due north to the River 
Arkansas ; thence following the course of the southern 



18 THE STORY OF THE 

bank of the Arkansas to its source; thence a Hne due 
north to the 420! parallel north ; and thence by that par- 
allel of latitude to the South Sea." Thus bv this treaty 
tiie United States ceded and renounced all claim to terri- 
tory west and south of this line ; and Spain forever 
yielded all claim and rights to territory east and north of 
it. Thus was definitely fixed the western boundary of the 
Louisiana Purchase, sixteen years after its cession by 
France. 

We have said that the Louisiana Purchase is a region of 
vast extent, and such it is. From it have been formed all 
of the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, 
Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and 
seven-eighths of Kansas, one-third of Colorado, two- 
thirds of Minnesota, two-thirds of Wyoming, all of the 
Indian Territory, and five-sixths of Oklahoma. If a Hne 
be drawn from the Falls of St. Anthony to the source of 
the Missouri, it will measure one thousand miles ; drawn 
from the same point to Pike's Peak, its length will be 
eight hundred miles ; one extended from the Lake of the 
Woods to the mouth of the Mississippi will measure 
thirteen hundred miles, or, if the meanderings of that 
river be followed, twenty-five hundred miles. 

^ The total area of the Louisiana Purchase is eight hun- 

I L^ 

v\ ^ dred and eighty-four thousand, five hundred and forty- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 19 

square miles — in round numbers, about nine hundred 
thousand.* Thus it is seen that it is one-eighth of the 
whole of North America ; nearly a third of the whole 
continental area of the United States ; nearly three times 
as large as the Thirteen Original States of the American 
Union ; more than three times as large as Texas ; 
more than thirteen times as large as all New England ; 
twenty -one times as large as Virginia; and one hundred 
and eight times as large as Massachusetts. It is nearly 
three-fourths as large as China ; nearly one-fourth as 
large as Europe ; and one-fifth larger than Mexico. When 



*A hundred years ago it was asserted that the Louisiana Purchase in- 
cluded all of the region lying between the Mississippi River and the Rocky 
Mountains, and in addition thereto, the present states of Idaho, Washington 
and Oregon. Congress, in 1S04, expressed its belief in this; Lewis and Clark 
exploring it in 1804-5-6 did not stop at the Rocky Mountains but went on to 
the Pacific Ocean, and, by the United States census of 1810, its a-rea was esti- 
mated at 1,115,335 square miles, which evidently included the three states 
named. Many maps have been issued — some of them by the American Gov 
ernment — showing its western boundary north of California to be the Pacific 
Ocean; whilst others — some of them published under the authority of the 
Government — have fixed its limits in that direction at the Rocky Mountains. 
But ever since 1819 the line fixed by the treaty with Spain in that year has 
been recognized as the boundary from the mouth of the Sabine River north- 
ward to the forty-second degree of latitude, while that further to the north- 
ward was long in doubt. In more recent years, however, the crest of the 
main range of the Rocky Mountains, extending from the forty-second degree 
northwesterly and crossing the northern boundary of Montana about ninety 
miles east of its northwest corner, has been and is now regarded as the 
northwestern limit of the Louisiana Purchase. This excludes the three 
states named above and the Purchase may be bounded thus: On the east by 
the Mississippi and a line drawn from its source to the Lake of the Woods; 
on the north by British America; on the west by the line fi.xed by the treaty 
with Spain in 1819 and the Rocky Mountains; on the south and southwest by 
Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. Within these bounds is an area of about 
900,000 square miles, as stated in the text. 



20 THE STORY OF THE 

its population has become as dense as that of Massachu- 
setts, it will contain more than three hundred millions of 
people within its borders. 

Throughout this wide expanse there once dwelt a peo- 
ple now extinct, and who have left but few traces of their 
existence. These consist of mounds which dot the land- 
scape, and implements, weapons, and ornaments, scattered 
over the surface, or dug from the sands and gravel beds 
of the rivers. However interesting they may be to the 
antiquarian and the student of ethnography, they have no 
place in history, for neither in blood, manners, speech, nor 
laws, have these people left a mark in all the land in which 
they lived. Over this same region in all its parts, white 
men found Indian nations roaming everywhere, but 
claiming no property in land, and existing in all stages of 
savage and barbarian life, from that of the Digger Indians 
of the Columbia River, to that of the Sun Worshippers 
on the banks of the Mississippi. They, too, have but 
slight connection with our subject, which deals rather 
with the discovery, exploration, and settlement of the re- 
gion by white men, and with the changes of sovereignty 
of different nations over it. These with an account of th.e 
planting of civilization, and the founding of States within 
its borders furnish the material for The Story of the 
Louisiana Purchase. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 21 



CHAPTER 11. 
Early Spaniards in the Louisiana Purchase. 

In the year 1492, Columbus, the great Genoese navi- 
gator, made known to Europe the existence of a New 
World, and thus prepared the way for two centuries of 
the most active prosecution of voyage and adventure in 
the whole history of the human race. Immediately after 
the announcement of the discovery, all the nations from 
the Mediterranean to Scandinavia engaged in trans- Atlan- 
tic exploration. North America was partitioned among 
three of them — Spain, England and France. The former 
occupied the southern part ; England, the middle portion ; 
while France took possession of the region lying along the 
St. Lawrence, and around the Great Lakes. 

Spain hastened to profit by the finding of a New 
World, and encouraged her navigators and merchants to 
engage in exploring and colonizing her vast possessions 
beyond the Atlantic. This they did. Ponce de Leon 
sought for gold and a fountain of perpetual youth on the 
shorelands of Florida. Nunz de Balboa, from an em- 
inence on the Isthmus of Darien, discovered the Pacific 
Ocean. Hernando Cortez landed on the coast of Tobasco 



22 THE STORY OP THE 

in 1 5 19, and in three years conquered the Mexican Em- 
pire, reduced its people to vassalage, and changed the 
name of the country to that of New Spain. Francisco 
Pizarro built a ship on the west side of Darien, and in 
1524 despoiled the Empire of Peru. 

In 1527, Pamphilo de Narvaez sailed from Spain with 
three hundred men and fifty horses, for the purpose of 
exploring the region between Florida and the Rio Grande. 
His vessels, three in number, arrived at Apalachee Bay 
the next year, where the army was landed. One of the 
vessels returned to Cuba for supplies, and the others, hav- 
ing unloaded their cargoes, sailed away to the westward 
and were never afterward heard of. Then the men began 
the march to the Rio Grande. There was great suiTfering ; 
the horses were killed and eaten ; then the spurs and stir- 
rups were forged into nails ; five small boats were con- 
structed on which the troops embarked ; two of these 
were lost at the mouth of the Mississippi, and the others 
dashed to pieces on the coast of Texas, where all on 
board perished, except Cabeza de Vaca, and four com- 
panions, one of whom was Estevan — Stephen — a negro, 
the first of his race that ever trod the soil of the south- 
western part of the United States. 

These survivors journeyed over Texas, ascended the 
Rio Grande to its source, and thence traversed the vast 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 23 

extent of country to the westward, and, in 1536, after 
years of wandering and untold suffering, arrived at Sina- 
loa, on the Gulf of California. From here they proceeded 
to the City of Mexico, where they informed Mendoza, the 
Governor-General of New Spain, that in their wanderings 
they had learned of the existence of rich countries, in 
which were "populous towns and very large houses," 
away to the northward. Mendoza had himself heard of 
the "Seven Cities of Cybola," said to be far away in that 
direction, and Francisco de Coronado, the Captain-Gen- 
eral of New Galicia, the northwestern province of New 
Spain, was called to the city and given command of an 
army of three hundred Spaniards and eight hundred 
natives, with which to go in search of these cities. 

This force assembled at Compostella, near the Pacific 
coast of Mexico, early in 1539, and marched to Culiacan. 
Hernando Alarcon transported the supplies in two ships 
to the head of the gulf of California. The army left Culi- 
acan on the 7th of March, and on the 26th of August ar- 
rived at the mouth of the Colorado River. Here Coro- 
nado failed to find Alarcon, who had gone a hundred 
miles up that stream, and, without his supplies, he began 
his march to the eastward across Arizona. The spring of 
1 541 found the army encamped near the source of the Rio 
Grande, and Coronado had learned that the fabled cities 



21 THE STORY OF THE 

of Cibola were but the communal villages of stone and mud 
inhabited by the Zuni Indians of Arizona and New Mex- 
ico — the Pueblas of a later day. But he was told that 
Ouiaviri, an opulent city, stood on a great plain away to 
the north.east, and he began his march in that direction in 
search of it. Onward the army proceeded over mountains 
and across prairies of vast extent into tlie Louisiana Pur- 
cliase, where the far-famed city proved to be but a large 
Indian town near tlie site of the present city of Wichita, 
in Kansas. "Here," says Coronado, "the army marched 
across mighty plains and sandy heaths, smooth and weari- 
some, and bare of wood. All that way the plains are as 
full of crooked-backed oxen as the mountain Serena, in 
Spain, is of sheep." Such is the first description of the 
prairies of the Louisiana Purchase. None can identify 
the line of march of Coronado. It is believed that he 
visited eastern Colorado, and he probably reached the Mis- 
souri River, between the sites of the present Kansas City 
and Council Bluffs. These first European adventurers in 
the Louisiana Purchase returned to New Spain, and thus 
ended in failure one of the most important enterprises 
ever undertaken in the unexplored solitudes of inland 
America. 

By a singular coincidence, another Spanish army was 
wandering over the wilds of the southern part of the con- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 25 

liiient, and penetrated the Louisiana Purchase at the same 
time that Coronado was on the plains of Kansas. On the 
31st day of May, 1539, ^^^^ ^^^^ o^ eleven ships of Her- 
nando de Soto cast anchor in the Bay of Santo Espiritu, 
on the west coast of Florida. That clay there were landed 
eight hundred infantry, and three hundred and fifty cav- 
alry. The former were composed of armed knights ; the 
latter of the best lancers of Spain. The commander had 
been a captain in the army of Pizarro in his conquest of 
Peru. Many men had sold their estates to engage in an 
enterprise which, in its results, promised to eclipse the 
conquest of Mexico. Among them were many of the first 
captains of Spain, the foremost of whom was Muscoso de 
Alvarado, who ranked next to De Soto himself. To the 
historian Garcillasco, one of the most scholarly men of his 
time, we are indebted for the account of the expedition. 

Now began the march into the wilderness, which has no 
parallel in the history of adventure in America. Beneath 
the dark shades of the southern forest the splendid 
pageant moved on, cheered by martial music and Castilian 
songs. These steel-clad warriors pressed their way 
through the marshes of the lowlands of Florida, Georgia, 
Alabama, and Alississippi. Winter and summer were one 
to them. On the banks of the Alabama, a short distance 
below Selma, they fought the battle of Mavilla with the 



26 THE STORY OF THE 

Chickasaw Indians, in which the latter were defeated with 
great slaughter, but not until the Spaniards had eighteen 
men killed and one hundred and forty wounded. The 
winter of 1540 was spent in a deserted village of the 
Chickasaw Indians in northern Mississippi, and early in 
April the march was resumed and continued until the 
first day of May, 1541, when the adventurers halted on 
the banks of the Mississippi River. The "Father of 
Waters" lay spread out before them, and they were the 
first Europeans that ever looked upon it. De Soto and 
his companions stood for a time entranced, and then gaz- 
ing across the mighty river, they beheld the shoreland of 
the Louisiana Purchase, which the imagination now 
painted as a land where was to be found vast treasures of 
gold and silver and precious stones, all ready to be gath- 
ered by the hands of the first adventurers who should 
reach its borders and penetrate its wild retreats. Barges 
were speedily constructed, and the army crossed to the 
western bank, a landing being effected not far from where 
Helena, Arkansas, now stands. 

The exact route of De Soto's army, like that of Coro- 
nado's west of the Mississippi — then a primeval solitude — 
cannot be determined with any degree of certainty ; but if 
it could be traced in detail it would not serve any good 
purpose to follow it through the then trackless region, 




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(26) 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 27 

across plains and over mountains, through tangled hrakc 
and brier. For more than a year the army moved aim- 
lessly about. It was probably at the mouth of the Arkan- 
sas ; then up the Mississippi as far as New Madrid ; then 
westward over the Ozark mountains to the plain beyond, 
where it spent the winter of 1541, in western Missouri. 
Then it wandered into western Arkansas among the Bos- 
ton mountains, and thence to the valleys of the White, the 
Arkansas, and the Red Rivers, down the last of which it 
followed to its confluence with the Mississippi, now in the 
State of Louisiana. Here, on the first day of May, De 
Soto died of fever caused by exposure and fatigue. His 
dying words were: "Spain expects a richer harvest of 
glory and more ample domains for her children." True 
it is that — 

**The path of glory leads but to the grave." 

His body was placed in an oaken trunk, and at midnight 
his companions rowed it out upon the stream and sunk it 
beneath the turbid waters of the mighty river which he 
himself had discovered. 

The survivors, now numbering but little more than 
three hundred, chose Alvarado as their leader, and began 
the journey across Texas to ^Mexico. But when they 
reached the Rio Grande, they beheld the towering moun- 
tains beyond, and returned to the mouth of the Red River. 



28 THE STORY OF THE 

There they constructed several small boats, and descend- 
ing the Mississippi, followed by a thousand hostile war- 
riors in canoes, reached its mouth on the i8th of June, 
1543. From here they coasted around the gulf to the 
westward, and fifty days thereafter reached the mouth 
of the Little Panuco River in Mexico, whence they made 
their way to the capital of that country, and from there 
some returned to Spain. 

From the day that the little brigantines of the sur- 
vivors of De Soto's army left the mouth of the Mississippi 
River, no other vessels save the Indian canoes plowed its 
waters again for more than a hundred and thirty years. 
Even the very existence of the river was forgotten save 
in Spanish chronicle and vague tradition. The curtain of 
oblivion was, as it were, again stretched from sky to sea, 
and the great Mississippi Valley lay hidden in its shadows. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 29 



CHAPTER III. 

Exploration and Settlement of New France — First 
Attempt to Colonize the Louisiana Purchase. 

It has been stated that in the occupation and settlement 
of North America, France took possession of the region 
along the St. Lawrence and around the Great Lakes. In 
the year 1624, John De Verazzano, sailing under the flag 
of that country, crossed the Atlantic, reached Cape Fear, 
North Carolina ; sailed northward along the coast of New- 
foundland, claimed the country north of the English pos- 
sessions for his king, bestowed upon it the name of Fran- 
cesca, and then returned to France, reaching Dieppe in 
July of the following year. 

Ten years thereafter, James Cartier, having a commis- 
sion from Francis I., King of France, sailed for America ; 
discovered the Strait of Belle Isle; entered the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence; and then proceeded up the river of that 
name as far as Hochelaga, now Montreal, where he took 
formal possession of the countrv in the name of his kino-, 
calling it New France. Here he spent the winter, and in 
the spring of 1536, began the homeward voyage. Francis 
la Roche and others continued to visit these northern seas. 



30 THE STORY OF THE 

and in 1579, there were one hundred and fifty French 
vessels engaged in the Newfoundland fisheries. 

In 1603, Henry IV., the French King, made Samuel 
Champlain Lieutenant-General of New France, and the 
next year, De Monts founded Port Royal in Acadia, now 
Nova Scotia. Henceforth there was great activity in the 
French colony. Champlain explored the islands and coast 
north of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and then, sailing up 
the river of that name, founded Quebec in 1608. Here he 
joined the Huron Indians in a war against the Five Na- 
tions, and, while thus eng-aged, discovered the lake which 
bears his name. In 161 3, a French settlement was made 
at St. Xavier, on Mount Desert Island, and the next year 
Le Caron went from Quebec and penetrated the country 
of the Mohawks southwest of Lake Ontario. In 1620, 
Champlain laid the foundation of Fort St. Louis, at Que- 
bec, a fortification to be known in later years as the Gib- 
raltar of America. 

The boundless region to the west of the St. Lawrence 
lay all unexplored, but, in 1659, ^wo fur traders spent the 
winter on the shores of Lake Superior, and the next 
spring, arrived at Quebec with sixty canoes laden with 
furs, and rowed by three hundred Algonquin warriors. 
These told the story of Indian population in that distant 
country, and Rene Mesnard, an aged missionary, was 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 31 

selected to establish a mission thereon as a place of assem- 
bly for the Indians of the surrounding nations. On the 
15th of October, 1661, he reached the straits of Kewee- 
naw Bay, in northern Michigan, where he called his sta- 
tion St. Theresa. There he remained nearly a year, and 
then departed for the Apostle's Islands, but while on his 
journey, was lost on Keweenaw peninsula, and never seen 
again. He. w^as followed in the mission work of the 
wilderness by Claude Allouez, who embarked at Quebec 
in 1665, and on the first of October, arrived at La Pointe, 
the great village of the Chippewas, on the Bay of Che- 
goi-rnei-gon, in Michigan. Here he met deputations of 
ten or twelve of the neighboring nations assembled in 
council to concert means against their common enemy, 
the Sioux. Allouez secured an audience, and in the name 
of his sovereign, Louis XIV., offered them peace and 
alliance with France. This was joyfully received, and the 
mission station of the Holy Spirit was there founded. 
Here Allouez remained two years, and then returned to 
Quebec. His successor was James Marquette, a name 
ever to be prominent in the history of the Mississippi 
Valley. 

Marquette was joined by Claude Dablon, another mis- 
sionary, and in 1668, they established the first permanent 
settlement in Michigan at the Falls of St. Mary — Sault 



32 THE STORY OF THE 

Ste. Marie. An Indian congress was held here, and 
nearly all of the nations of the lake region were placed 
under the protection of Louis XIV. Marquette gathered 
the remnant at Point St. Ignace, north of Mackinaw 
Strait, where a post was long maintained as the key to 
the West. Thus was the whole lake region made known 
to France, and M. Talon, the Viceroy of New France, 
sent Nicholas Perrot, in 1671, with a military force to 
propose a congress of Indians at Sault Ste. Marie the 
following spring. Here, at the appointed time, many chiefs 
and warriors assembled, and Sieur St. Lusson, the repre- 
sentative of France, was charged to take possession of all 
the country to the westward, and to receive the Indians 
under the protection of the French king. Thus was an 
alliance formed between the barbarous nations of the 
American wilderness on the one side, and France on the 
other, which continued for nearl\- a hundred years. The 
same year, Dablon and Allouez explored the country 
west of Lake Michigan, that is, what is now western 
Michigan and northern Illinois. 

As early as 1666, Indians from the far west visited 
Quebec, and told the story of a mighty river beyond the 
Great Lakes. This aroused an interest in that of which 
the very existence had long been but a vague tradition. 
Some thought that, if there be such a river, it flowed 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 33 

away into the north Pacific Ocean, then called the "South 
Sea," and that it would open trade with China; others 
believed that it found its way into the Gulf of California, 
and would thus form a means of communication with 
New Spain; and still others insisted that it poured its 
mighty flood into the Gulf of Mexico, and that its ex- 
ploration would give to France the possession of the 
whole interior of the continent of North America. The 
authorities at Quebec determined to know the whole 
truth. Count Frontenac arrived as Governor of New 
France, in 1672, and M. Talon, the late Intendant, recom- 
mended to him Louis Joliet, a native of Canada, and a 
resident of Quebec, as a suitable person to entrust with 
the exploration, and he was selected for the enterprise. 
James Marquette, the missionary, had come to New 
France in 1666, since which time he had been engaged in 
mission work among the Indians, and was at this time 
pastor of the church of St. Ignace at Mackinaw Strait, 
where, on the 8th of December, 1672, Joliet arrived, hav- 
ing orders to take Marquette with him as a companion 
on his expedition. At this place the remainder of the 
winter was spent, and on the 17th of May ensuing, the 
two set out, with their attendants, on the voyage to Green 
Bay. From its shore they ascended the Fox River until, 
on the loth of June, they reached its source. Then, lift- 



34 THE STORY OF THE 

ing their light canoes on their shoulders, they carried 
them across the narrow portage which separates the 
waters of the Fox River from the Wisconsin. "From 
here the guides returned," writes Marquette, ''leaving us 
alone in this unknown land." Embarking on the broad 
Wisconsin, with the wide bosom of its blue waters spread 
out before them, they rowed down the stream until, on 
the 17th day of June, 1673, they "entered happily on the 
great river with a joy that could not be expressed." 
Europeans had found the Mississippi again. A hundred 
and thirty years had come and gone since white men had 
beheld it, and they were the first Frenchmen who ever 
saw it. Now they began its descent, and the dipping of 
their oars kept time with the measured cadence of their 
songs. They went on shore near the site of the present 
city of Davenport, where they were the first white men 
in lovv'a, and the first Frenchmen ever within the Louisi- 
ana Purchase. On the 25th of June, when further down 
the river, they saw footprints of men on the western 
shore. Landing, they followed these for six miles into 
the interior, where they came to an Indian town, and were 
hospitably entertained. Embarking again, they continued 
their journey until they reached the Indian town of Qua- 
paw, at the mouth of the Arkansas River. Here they 
learned, beyond a doubt, that the Mississippi flows into 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 35 

the Gulf of Mexico. On the 17th of July they began the 
return voyage by way of the Illinois River and Lake 
Michigan to Mackinaw, where both remained during the 
winter. Then Marquette resumed his missionary labors, 
and, early in the spring of 1674, Joliet proceeded to 
Quebec, where his report of the exploration and discov- 
ery of the Mississippi produced great joy, and the bells of 
the cathedral were rung from morning till night in cele- 
bration of the event. Now the bounds of New France 
might be extended to the Gulf of Mexico. 

The greatest explorer of the Mississippi Valley was 
now in New France, but, as yet, unknown. This was 
Robert Cavalier de la Salle, who came from France to 
Quebec in 1666, when but twenty-three years of age. He 
settled at La Chine, near Montreal, and from here, in 
1669, set out on a tour of western exploration to find the 
Ohio River, the existence of which he had learned from 
the missionary Dollier de Casson. He traveled with two 
missionaries bound for the western lakes until he came 
to Presque Isle on the southern shore of Lake Erie, 
where, leaving them, he, with several companions, crossed 
the highlands to the Allegheny River, and then descended 
the Ohio as far as the falls — now Louisville, Kentucky. 
He returned to Quebec, and the next year made a tour 
of the Great Lakes, and visited the site of the present city 



36 THE STORY OF THE 

of Chicago. Patronized by the Governor, he built Fort 
Frontenac, where Kingston, Ontario, now stands, and 
was there ni command until 1677. He had proposed to 
explore the Mississippi to its mouth, and Frontenac sent 
him to France, where he explained to Colbert, the Minis- 
ter of Marine, the boundless resources of the Mississippi 
Valley, and the advantages that France would derive 
from its exploration and settlement. This he asked per- 
mission to undertake. Not only did he obtain that con- 
cession, but, with other privileges, he was granted a 
monopoly of the fur trade for a series of years. A ship 
laden with supplies for his use sailed from Rochelle, June 
14, 1678, and cast anchor at Quebec, on the I5tli of the 
ensuing September. La Salle brought with him as his 
lieutenant the Cavalier de Tonti, whose name was to be 
coupled, henceforth, with that of his own in the dramas 
and tragedies of the wilderness. The expedition was 
fitted out at Fort Frontenac, passed over Lake Ontario, 
ascended the Niagara above the Great Falls, and at Tona- 
wanda creek, on the upper course of that river, built the 
''Griffin," a vessel of forty tons, so named from the coat- 
of-arms of Count Frontenac. She was launched and be- 
gan the voyage with forty men on board, among them 
Tonti and Louis Hennepin. This was the first vessel 
built by white men that ever plowed the blue waters of 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 37 

the Great Lakes. Over Lake Erie, through Detroit Strait, 
across Lake St. Clair, to which La Salle gave its name, 
and on across Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, the voy- 
age was continued to Green Bay. Here the "Griffin" 
was freighted with the choicest furs, and sent back to 
Quebec. From that day to this, none know her fate, for it 
is still a secret of these inland seas. 

La Salle remained at Green Bay some time, aw^aiting 
the return of his vessel that was never to come. Then he 
proceeded to the southern end of Lake Michigan, w^here, 
on the bank of the St. Joseph's River, he built Fort 
Miami and passing over to the Illinois River, erected on 
its shore, a short distance below where Peoria now stands, 
a small fortification which he called Fort Creve Coeur. 
That part of the Mississippi above the mouth of the Wis- 
consin was, as yet, unexplored, and La Salle now sent 
Louis Hennepin to find the source of that river. With 
two men, one of whom was M. Du Gay, he proceeded 
down the Illinois in a canoe, and reached its mouth on the 
29th of February, 1680. From here the voyage up the 
Mississippi was begun and continued to the Falls of St. 
Anthony, so called by Hennepin, and when a short dis- 
tance beyond, on the nth of April, they w^ere taken pris- 
oners by the Sioux Indians, who held them in captivity 
for eight months. Then, through the intercessions of a 



38 THE STORY OF THE 

Frenchman — du Lhut — they were liberated, and returned 
by way of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers to Mackinaw. 
There Hennepin spent the winter, and then proceeded to 
Quebec, where he arrived April 6, 1682. 

Meanwhile, La Salle left Tonti in command of Fort 
Creve Coeur and visited Quebec, where he speedily ad- 
justed some business matters, and then hastened back to 
the Illinois. There he found the fort demolished — the 
work of the Five Nations — and the garrison gone, he 
knew not where. Again, he set out for Quebec, and on 
reaching Mackinaw, was overjoyed at meeting with the 
faithful Tonti, who told him the story of wreck and ruin 
on the Illinois. The two proceeded to Quebec. 

The Mississippi had now been traversed from the Falls 
of St. Anthony to the mouth of the Arkansas, and La 
Salle resolved to explore its lower course to the Gulf of 
Mexico. Friends aided him to fit out the expedition for 
that purpose. With Tonti, Zenobe Membre, thirty 
Frenchmen and a band of faithful Indians, he left Quebec 
late in the summer of 1681, and, on the 3d of November, 
all were at Fort Miami. From here, Tonti and others 
passed around the southern end of Lake Michigan to the 
mouth of the Chicago River, and crossed the portage to 
the Illinois, while La Salle, with the remainder of the 
party proceeded by way of the Kankakee River, and all 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 39 

were united at Fort Creve Cceur, on the 4th of January, 
1682. From here the voyage began, and, on the 6th of 
February, the canoes from the mouth of the lUinois, shot 
out into the floating ice of the Mississippi, then known at 
Quebec as the Colbert River. The mouth of the Missouri 
was passed, and on the Chickasaw Bluffs, where Memphis 
now stands, a little stockade was erected and named Fort 
Prudhomme, for a man who was here lost in the forest, 
but afterwards returned. A stop was made at the mouth 
of the Arkansas, and a monument of possession was 
reared. 

Onward floated the canoes over the broad reaches of 
the "Father of Waters," and another monument was 
placed on the bluff where Natchez now stands. On the 
6th of April, they came to where the river spreads out 
into three channels. Dautfay led a party down the South 
Pass; Tonti and Membre, with others, descended the 
middle one; while La Salle conducted the remainder of 
the party down the western channel. Briny waters 
sprayed the canoes, and soon the Gulf of Mexico — the 
American Mediterranean Sea— lay spread out before 
them. All were reunited, and on the shoreland, just 
within one of the outlets, the usual ceremonies were per- 
formed. The notary drew up a record of the proceedings, 
a cross Vv^as planted, the escutcheon of France was nailed 



40 THE STORY OF THE 

to a tree near by, a leaden plate, bearing inscriptions as- 
serting possession, was buried, and then La Salle took 
solemn possession of all the vast region stretching away 
from the Rocky Mountains to the Alleghanies — the water- 
shed of the Mississippi — in the name of his king, and 
that day — the 9th of April, 1682 — a wide domain passed 
into history as Louisiana. To the mighty river he gave 
the name of St. Louis. Then all returned to the Illinois, 
whence La Salle dispatched Zenobe Membre to France 
with an account of the expedition and its results. He and 
Tonti with their companions now built Fort St. Louis, 
in which he matured his plans for the colonization of the 
Mississippi Valley ; chief of these was the founding of a 
permanent settlement at the mouth of the great river. 
Early in the spring of 1683 he went to Quebec, and soon 
after sailed for France. 

The Marquis de Seignelay, son of Colbert, whom he 
had succeeded as Minister of Marine, now became the 
patron of La Salle, who was made Commandant of Lou- 
isiana. An expedition was fitted out at the expense of the 
government to plant a colony at the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi, within the bounds of the Louisiana Purchase. L: 
consisted of a squadron of four vessels — the flag-ship 
'7oli," the frigate "Aimable," the brig "La Belle," and 
the '*St. Francis," a ketch, all under the command of 




STATUE OF LA SALLE, LINCOLN PARK. CHICAGO. 



(40) 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 41 

Beaujeau, a captain of the navy. Two hundred and 
eighty persons went on board, one hundred of whom were 
soldiers under Joutel, a brother of La Salle. Of the 
others there were twelve families — men, women and 
children — five clergymen, and a number of mechanics. 
The sails were spread and the voyage began from Ro- 
chelle on the 4th of July, 1684. The '']oY\' reached San 
Domingo first, the ''Aimable" and "La Belle" came in 
together, but the ''St. Francis" never arrived, she having 
been taken by Spanish privateers. From here Beaujeau 
sailed for the mouth of the Mississippi, but by mistake 
missed it, and in January, 1685, cast anchor in Matagorda 
Bay on the coast of Texas, a hundred leagues west of his 
destination. Here the ''Aimable," having on board the 
greater part of the supplies, was wrecked on the sandbars. 
Then the colonists went on shore, and, on the bank of 
the little Lavaca River, built a frail structure which they 
called Fort St. Louis. Beaujeau sailed for France in the 
"Joh," on the 15th of March, and the ''Belle" alone was 
left. Soon after, her captain was killed in the forest, and 
then she was driven on shore by a storm and filled with 
water. La Salle made a fruitless canoe voyage in search 
of the mouth of the Mississippi, then endeavored to find 
the mines in New Spain, but failed in this. With several 
soldiers he attempted to reach the Illinois country, but 
again all, disheartened, returned to the shores of the bay. 



42 THE STORY OF THE 

Meanwhile, Tonti, on the Ilhnois, having learned from 
Canada that the expedition had sailed from France, 
descended the Alississippi to meet his chief at its mouth. 
In this he was doomed to disappointment. He found that 
the tree, on which La Salle had placed the arms of France 
two years before, had blown down, and, despairing of 
finding the colony, he planted another cross, replaced the 
arms on another tree, twenty miles from the mouth of the 
river, and then, having written a letter bearing date April 
20, 1685, which he left with the Indians, to be given La 
Salle if he ever came, he ascended the river and made 
his way back to the Illinois country. 

Now there was sickness, starvation and death in the 
colony ; the living were unable to bury the dead. A des- 
perate effort was made to reach Canada and bring aid 
therefrom. La Salle, with sixteen others, set out on the 
journey. Misfortune produced dissension. The leader 
was blamed for all their griefs and sufferings, and, on the 
loth of March, 1687, when on a branch of the Trinity 
River, in Texas, Du Haut and L'Archeve, prompted by 
the mutinous spirit that possessed them, concealed them- 
selves in the high grass, and shot and killed La Salle and 
his nephew. The assassins were then killed in a fight over 
the spoils; six of the party joined the Indians, but Joutel 
and the others made their way to the fort on the Illinois, 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 43 

which they reached September 4, 1687. From here they 
journeyed to Quebec, whence they soon after sailed for 
France. Thus failed the first effort of France to found a 
colony in the Mississippi Valley. 

As Tonti and his party were returning from the mouth 
of the Mississippi, whither he had gone to meet La Salle, 
they ascended the Arkansas River, fifty miles to a village 
of the Ouapaw Indians. "Some of his people,'' says Du 
Pratz, "insisted they might be allowed to settle there, 
which was agreed to, he leaving ten of them at that place, 
and this small cantonment maintained its ground, not only 
because from time to time increased by some Canadians 
who came down the river, but, above all, because those who 
formed it, had the prudent precaution to live in peace with 
the natives." Such was the founding of Arkansas Post, 
in 1686, the first European settlement within the Louisi- 
ana Purchase. 

New France was now divided into two vast regions 
called Canada and Louisiana, to the latter of which be- 
longed the Illinois Country south and west of Lake Michi- 
gan. As no bounds were ever fixed, these divisions were 
spoken of in general way only. But France had estab- 
lished her title to the Louisiana Purchase, basing it on the 
right of discovery. Her voyagers and explorers had been 
all along the Mississippi, from the Falls of St. Anthony 



44 THE STORY OF THE 

to the Gulf ; had, at many places, set foot on its western 
shore; and had made the settlement on the Arkansas. 
They had named the Mississippi the St. Louis ; the Mis- 
souri, the St. Philip; the Wabash, the St. Jerome; the 
Illinois, the Seignelay ; the Ohio, ''La Belle;" the Min- 
nesota, the St. Peter's ; while Lake Ontario was Lac 
Frontenac ; L>ake Huron was Lac Tracy ; Lake Michigan 
was Lac Orleans ;■ Lake Erie was Lac Conti ; and Green 
Bay was Paun's Bay. But thirteen years were to pass 
away before France should make another effort to plant 
a colony within the borders of the Louisiana Purchase. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 45 



CHAPTER IV. 



First Permanent Settlement of the Mississippi 

Valley. 

Among the most prominent families of Canada is that 
founded by Charles Lemoine at Montreal ; a number of 
its members spent their lives in the military and naval 
service of France, where they won titles of distinction. 
Among these were Pierre Lemoine de Iberville, Jean Bap- 
tiste Lemoine de Bienville, Antoine Lemoine CI ateaugay, 
and Antoine Lemoine de Sauvolle, all of whom dis- 
tinguished themselves in the early history of the Louisiana 
Purchase. 

In 1694, Iberville came to Canada with two ships and a 
small land force with which he ravaged the English set- 
tlements, and on July 3d of that year, off the coast of 
Acadia, now Nova Scotia, in the first naval battle of the 
New World, he attacked three British ships, and captured 
the Newport of sixty guns. Fog enabled the other two to 
escape. Thenceforth, he was the naval hero of King Wil- 
liam's war, and the "idol of his countrymen." 

Thirteen years had now passed away since Tonti had 
founded the little cantonment on the Arkansas, and no 
other settlement had been made in all the Louisiana Pur- 



46 THE STORY OF THE 

chase. But in 1697, Pontchartrain, the French Minister 
of Marine, sent two ships to explore the Louisiana coast, 
and gather information regarding it. Iberville was ready 
to carry out any scheme projected for the colonization of 
that region, and he obtained a commission fof ''establish- 
ing direct intercourse between France and the Missis- 
sippi." Pontchartrain was the patron of the enterprise, 
and an expedition was fitted out for this purpose. Two 
frigates, the ''Bodine" and ''Marin" of thirty guns each, 
and two transports composed the squadron. On board 
were two hundred persons — men, women, and children — 
and a company of miners. Bienville, a brother of Iber- 
ville, served as a midshipman on the "Bodine," and Sau- 
voile as ensign on the "Marin." The sails were set, and 
on the 17th of October, 1698, the squadron began the voy- 
age from the harbor of Brest, and Iberville, having re- 
ceived orders "to land near the mouth of the Mississippi, 
and to prevent at all hazards any other nation from land- 
ing there," steered for San Domingo. Here the two 
frigates and one of the transports arrived on the 4th of 
December ensuing, and the other came into port ten days 
later. The "Francois," a fifty-four gun ship, was added 
to the squadron as an escort to the American coast, and 
all sailed from San Domingo on the 31st of December, 
and on the 23d of January, 1699, arrived in Pensacola 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 47 

Bay, in Spanish territory. From here the voyage was 
continued until, on the 3Tst, the ships entered Mobile Bay, 
where a large island was named Massacre, because of the 
great quantity of human bones found on it. Another 
move was made, and on the loth of February the vessels 
cast anchor in the roadstead at Ship Island, on the shores 
of which some huts were erected as a protection to the 
people who sought rest on shore after a long sea voyage. 

On the 13th, Iberville, with Bienville and eleven sailors, 
left the ship and went to explore the shore of the main- 
land. Eight days later, the "Francois" sailed for San 
Domingo. On the 27th, Iberville and Bienville went in 
search of the Mississippi. They paddled along the shore 
of the gulf past the bluffs of white sand on which stood 
dense groves of live oaks, water oaks, pines, cedars, and 
magnolias, until, at last, on the second of March, 1699, 
''with two row boats, some bark canoes, and fifty-three 
men," they entered the mouth of a mighty river, hence- 
forth destined to be the royal highway of a nation. They 
proceeded up stream as far as Red River, where the sur- 
vivors of De Soto's Spanish army lost their leader, a hun- 
dred and fifty years before. While on this voyage they 
met some of the Indians from whom they received Tonti's 
letter, written and left with them fourteen years since, to 
be given to La Salle if he should ever come. From its con- 



48 THE STORY OP THE 

tents they knew of a certainty that they were in the Mis- 
sissippi. On the return voyage, Bienville proceeded by 
way of the mouth of that river, while Iberville entered the 
river which has since borne his name, and pursued his 
way through lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, which 
later received their names in honor of the Minister of 
Marine and his son, and passed to the outer sea. Both 
brothers returned to their ships the same day. 

A landing was now effected, and a site selected for a 
settlement. This was on the sandy shore of the little 
Biloxi Bay, near Ocean Springs, now in Harrison County, 
Mississippi, the boundary between French Louisiana and 
Spanish Florida not having been determined. There they 
erected Fort Maurepas, the walls of wood being eighteen 
inches thick and nine feet high, and on which were 
mounted fifty cannon. Seventy men and six boys were 
landed as a garrison. SauvoUe was installed as com- 
mandant, Bienville as the king's lieutenant, and de Bor- 
dinac, as chaplain. Then the colonists built their cabins 
around the walls of the fort. On the 3d of May, Iberville, 
with two frigates sailed for France, accompanied by one 
of the transports which went as far as San Domingo for 
supplies. 

In August, Bienville left Fort Maurepas at Biloxi, with 
several men and two perogues to explore the lower Mis- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 49 

sissippi. Entering its mouth, he proceeded up the stream 
nearly four hundred miles. He went on shore where 
Natchez now stands, and was so pleased with the beauty 
of the place, that he resolved to visit it again. As the 
perogues were being rowed down the river, they met on 
the i6th of September, an English ship of sixteen guns. 
It was commanded by Captain Barr, who informed Bien- 
ville that a similar vessel was at the mouth of the river, 
and that they were sent by Dr. Daniel Coxe, of New Jer- 
sey, at the time proprietor of the grant by Charles I., in 
1629, to Sir Robert Heath, for Carolina. The object of 
the voyage was to sound the passage at the mouth of the 
Mississippi. Bienville told him, in reply, that he was then 
within the territory of the French king, who was at that 
moment engaged in settling the country. There Captain 
Barr, having learned this, turned back, and to this day the 
place, eighteen miles below New Orleans, is known as the 
"English Turn." This was, doubtless, the first ship that 
ever entered the Mississippi River, or navigated the 
waters of the Louisiana Purchase. 

Louis XIV. did not favor the effort to make a per- 
manent settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi, and at 
this time, April 8, 1699, we find the Minister of Marine 
writing that "the King does not at present intend to form 
a permanent establishment on the Mississippi, but only to 



50 THE STORY OF THE 

complete the discovery in order to prevent the EngHsli 
from taking possession there." But Iberville, on his re- 
turn to France, explained that the settlement was already 
made, that Fort Maurepas had been built, and a garrison 
placed therein. Now that the work of colonization was 
begun, the King resolved to aid it, and did so to the end 
of his life. 

Early in January, 1700, Iberville again arrived at Fort 
Maurepas. He came in the good ship "Renominee," 
which was laden Vv^ith supplies. He brought with him a 
commission from the King for Sauvolle, making him Gov- 
ernor of the Colony. Bienville now reported the recent 
appearance of the English ships at the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi, and Iberville, remembering his instruction not 
to permit "any other nation to land there," saw that it 
must be fortified if successfully defended. Accordingly, 
he with Bienville and several members of the garrison de- 
parted for tliat purpose. In January, 1700, a fort was 
built on what is now known as "Poverty Point," fifty-four 
miles from the mouth of the river, and on its east bank. 
This was the first structure ever reared by Europeans on 
the banks of the Mississippi. It was named Fort Balise. 
Bienville was made commandant here, while Sauvolle con- 
tinued in that capacity at Fort Maurepas. 

About tlie first of March, Iberville proceeded up the 
river to view the site of Natchez, of the beauty of which 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 51 

Bienville had informed him. He, too, was delighted with 
it, and on the high bhiff laid out Le Ville de Rosalie. 
From there, in April, he sent Sieur Lessueur with a party 
up the Mississippi in search of copper mines. They pro- 
ceeded as far as the mouth of the St. Peter's River, now 
the Minnesota, and spent a fruitless winter among the 
Iowa Indians, within the present limits of the Louisiana 
Purchase. Iberville descended the river, and proceeded to 
the ''Renominee," lying at anchor in the roadstead of Ship 
Island, in wdiich he sailed for France about the first of 
May, and was absent more than a year. 

Meantime, there was sickness and death in the little 
colony on the lonely and inhospitable Louisiana shore. 
Half the colonists perished, and w^re buried in the glit- 
tering sands at Biloxi, or in the spongy soil on the bank of 
the Mississippi. Among those interred at the former 
place was Sau voile, who died August 22, 1701. Thus 
perished the first Governor of Louisiana. When Bien- 
ville heard of this, he left a subordinate in command on 
the Mississippi, and hastened to Biloxi, where he assumed 
the duties of Governor of the Colony. 

Early in December, 1701, Iberville for the third time 
reached Fort Maurepas, with two ships of the line, and a 
brig laden with arms and provisions. He visited the grave 
of his kinsman, Sauvolle, on the sandy beach, and with 



52 THE STORY OF THE 

Bienville, mourned his death. Then he hastened to the 
great enterprise with which he was charged — that of 
making permanent the settlement of the Louisiana Pur- 
chase. A garrison of tv/eive men was left at Fort Maure- 
pas, and the seat of the colony was removed to Massacre 
Island, which then received the name of Dauphine Island. 
Here Iberville superintended the erection of Fort St. 
Louis, which, henceforth, for nine years, continued to be 
the headquarters of the colonial establishment. 

Early in the spring of 1702, Iberville left the shore of 
Louisiana never to see it again. In the following year he 
was made Captain-General of the Colony; but the War 
of the Spanish Succession, better known in America as 
Queen Anne's War, was at hand, and he, as the chief 
naval officer of France, went to sea with a fleet of war 
vessels, and while lying in the harbor of Havana, pre- 
paring to ravage the coast of Carolina, died on the 9th of 
July, 1706. 

In July, 1703, the government sent out a ship with sup- 
plies, and having on board seventy-five soldiers — the first 
regulars sent to the Mississippi Valley. The next year 
Antoine Lemoine de Chateaugay, another brother of Iber- 
ville, arrived at Fort St. Louis with a cargo of supplies 
and seventeen settlers from Canada. 

Now the French authorities recognized the fact that 
the stability of the colony would be secured only by the 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 53 

establishment of family ties. Up to tliis time very few of 
the colonists had come to Louisiana with the intention of 
finding a permanent home. Nearly all were adventurers 
who had left France with the determination to return 
some time — either when they had accumulated a fortune 
or had gratified a desire for adventure. The endearment 
of home and friends are the ties that bind a man to a fixed 
habitation, and now, if these could be found on this side 
the Atlantic, then would the adventurers relinquish the 
fond hope of some time returning to France, and thus the 
permanency of the colony would be assured. To achieve 
this end, Louis XIV., in 1704, caused twenty females to 
be sent over sea to become wives of the colonists. He 
said to Bienville : "All these girls are industrious, and 
have received a virtuous and pious education." Then he 
added that they were to be married only to "such men as 
are capable of providing them with commodious homes." 
Such was the compliment paid by the aged King of 
France to the first European mothers of the Louisiana 
Purchase. Twenty-five more women, of similar good 
character, came over in the next year. 

The year 1705 was a gloomy one. There was pestilence 
and death, and at one time there were but forty-five able 
bodied men in the colony. The fort on the Mississippi was 
abandoned, the garrison retiring to Fort St. Louis. Thus 



54 THE STORY OF THE 

there were then but two settlements — Biloxi and Dau- 
phine Island — and at the end of the year, so great had 
been the fatality that there were but one hundred and 
forty-five people alive in the colony. In the midst of this 
distress, M. Barrot, the first regularly educated physician 
in the Louisiana Purchase, arrived at Dauphine Island. 
He was sent by the King to minister to the waints of the 
suffering. In 1707, De Muys was appointed to succeed 
Bienville, but he died at Havana while on his way to the 
colony, and Bienville remained as Governor of Louisi- 
ana. Queen Anne's War continued, and this resulted in 
the neglect of all colonial interests. In 1710, there were 
but two hundred and forty-nine Europeans in the colony, 
of whom one hundred and twenty -two were soldiers, and 
they were the possessors of fifty cows, forty calves, twelve 
oxen, fourteen hundred hogs, and two thousand hens. 
Such was the Louisiana Purchase tv/elve years after the 
founding of the settlement at Biloxi. 

Bienville now resolved to remove the settlement from 
Dauphine Island to the mainland, and he selected a site on 
the west bank of Mobile River at the head of the bay, and 
there erected Fort St. Louis de Mobile. The removal 
was made in 171 1, and here was located the capital of 
Louisiana for the next twelve years. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 55 



CHAPTER V. 



The Louisiana Purchase Granted to Anthony 

Crozet. 

In the summer of 17 12 there were in all Louisiana but 
twenty-eight families — each more wretched than the 
others — and the total population, including two companies 
of fifty men each, numbered but four hundred, of whom 
twenty were negroes. To the astonishment of all, An- 
thony Crozet petitioned Louis XIV., and obtained the ex- 
clusive right to trade with that country. He was at this 
time one of the foremost commercial men of France, and, 
perhaps, the wealthiest merchant in Europe, having ac- 
cumulated a vast fortune in the East India trade. He had 
lent large sums of money to France when in need, and 
was recognized, in consideration of his worth and in- 
fluence, by being created Marquis de Chatil. 

His charter, dated at Versailles, September 12, 171 2, 
v/as signed at Fontainebleau by Louis XIV., in the seven- 
tieth year of his reign, and registered at Paris on the 27th 
ensuing. It included all the lands possessed by France in 
Louisiana, and ''bounded by Nev/ Mexico on the west ; 
by the lands of the English of Carolina, on the east ; and 
from the edge of the sea so far north as the Illinois ; 



56 THE STORY OF THE 

together with all the inhabitants, forts, houses and rivers," 
including the St. Louis, now the Mississippi; the St. 
Philip, now the Missouri ; and the St. Jerome, now the 
Wabash. The region thus granted was a greater empire 
than France Was ever to be, and the privileges were to 
continue for a period of fifteen years. 

By the terms of this charter, the King was to pay ten 
thousand dollars annually for nine years to assist in de- 
fraying the expenses of Louisiana, after which time, 
Crozet was to pay the whole cost of maintaining the 
colonial system, including the erection of forts and the 
support of garrisons. All persons were forbidden to trade 
with Louisiana during its continuance "under pain of con- 
fiscation of goods and ships.'' Crozet was to receive 
three-fourths of the proceeds of all mines worked, the 
King the other fourth ; to own forever all lands which he 
might put under cultivation, and the buildings which he 
might erect thereon. He w^as to send two shiploads of 
colonists and one cargo of negroes annually to the colony, 
and was to nominate all officers, the same to be appointed 
by the King. The code of Paris was adopted for the 
government of the colony, in addition to which was to be 
added an executive council similar to that of San Do- 
mingo. Thus were the manners, customs and laws of the 
French capital made those of the Louisiana Purchase. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASIl. 57 

Two ships with suppHes and settlers, and having on 
board Crozet's government, arrived in Mobile Bay, May 
ly, 1 713. Lamothe de Cadillac came as Governor. He 
was an old Canadian soldier, who, in 1701, with a hundred 
men from Quebec, built Fort Pontchartrain on the site of 
the present city of Detroit. With him came Lemoine des 
Ursins, Crozet's colonial agent. They brought a com- 
mission for Bienville as Lieutenant-Governor. Cadillac 
was greatly disappointed with Louisiana which he had 
been told was a flourishing colony, but which he found 
on his arrival to be but a "miserable existence." He 
wrote Crozet saying : 'Tts story is nothing but fables and 
lies." Then he added: "Believe me, this whole continent 
is not worth having, and our colonists are so dissatisfied 
that they are all disposed to run away." 

The proprietor, in 1714, insisted on a cultivation of the 
lands and the development of a commerce, and desired 
that trading stations be established not only along the 
Mississippi but on the Wabash, Illinois and Missouri 
rivers. To this, when making reply, Cadillac said : 
"What! is it expected that for any commercial or profit- 
able purposes boats will ever be able to row up the Missis- 
sippi into the Wabash, the Illinois, or the Missouri ? One 
might as well try to bite a slice off the moon." Little 
thought the old Governor at that time that two centuries 



58 THE STORY OF THE 

hence these rivers would be the seat of the greatest inland 
commerce of the world. 

The chief business of all was to search for mines. They 
expected that they would grow rich by the discovery of 
gold, silver and precious stones, and in this pursuit their 
best energies were wasted. Even Cadillac himself 
ascended the Mississippi a thousand miles, and traversed 
the Illinois country in search of silver mines. Population 
increased, but there were but few negroes, and they were 
in the vicinity of the fort at Mobile. Crozet now at- 
tempted to open trade with New Spain. In 171 5, he sent 
M. de St. Denis on an overland journey to Mexico City 
to make a treaty of commerce with that country. He 
arrived there on the 5th of June, and was kindly received 
by the Duke of Linarez, then Viceroy of New Spain, who 
promised that such a treaty should be made. But he soon 
after died, and his successor was opposed to this. Emis- 
saries were also sent, by Crozet, to Spanish Florida, but 
failed in their mission because of the exclusive features 
of his charter by which he obtained a monopoly of the 
trade of the Louisiana Purchase. Neither could his 
agents control the Indian trade, some of which went to 
Canada, and another part to the English in Carolina. 

Early in the year 17 16, Cadillac sent Bienville to build 
a fort on the Mississippi. With a small body of troops he 
hastened away to the site of Natchez, which he had ad- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 59 

mired so much, and on which Iberville had laid out a 
town sixteen years before. Here he reared the walls of 
Fort Rosalie and, while superintending that work, smoked 
the calumet of peace with the chiefs of the Natchez na- 
tion, whose warriors assisted in the construction of the 
fort. The work was completed on the 3d of August, an^l 
Bienville, having detailed a garrison from troops with 
him, returned to Mobile on the 4th of October, 17 16. 
Prior to this year all communication between Canada and 
Louisiana had been bv wav of the Wisconsin and Illinois 
Rivers, but now journeys began to be made along the 
Wabash and down the Ohio to the Mississippi. 

There was much discouragement in Louisiana. The 
rich mines, supposed to exist, had not been found. 
Agriculture was wholly neglected. Louis XIV., Crozet's 
best friend, died September i, 171 5, and was succeeded 
by Louis XV., then but five years of age, with the Duke 
of Orleans as Regent of France. Cadillac resigned the 
office of Governor, and on the 9th of March, 1717, De 
L'Epinay arrived at Mobile as his successor. A few 
months more satisfied Crozet with his Louisiana experi- 
ment, and, after having spent hundreds of thousands of 
francs in the Mississippi wilderness without profit, he sur- 
rendered his charter on the 23d of August, 1717, when it 
had been in force four years, eleven months and nine 
days. 



60 THE STORY OF THE 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Louisiana Purchase Under the West Indies 
Company, and the Company of the Indies. 

The Louisiana Purchase was a wilderness in which the 
vain search for gold and the trading in furs, rather than 
the substantial pursuits of agriculture, allured the col- 
onists to ruin. There the bones of deceased emigrants 
who had been induced by Iberville and Crozet to seek the 
Mississippi as their home, still whitened its valleys ; yet, 
in France, visions of untold wealth existing somewhere 
along its tributary streams were ever before the people, 
who thus beheld mines of silver and gold, beds of precious 
gems, plantations of infinite extent and surpassing beauty, 
towns and cities, commerce and trade, which were de- 
sired to replenish an empty treasury and thus save the 
failing fortunes of a sinking empire. 

On the 6th day of September, but fourteen days after 
the Duke of Orleans accepted the charter of Crozet, he 
granted another to the West India Company, which suc- 
ceeded to all the franchise's surrendered by the former, 
with greatly increased privileges. John Law, who or- 
ganized this company, and who was its director-general, 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 61 

was a man of a remarkable career. He was a Scotchman, 
born in Edinburgh in 1671 ; went to London when twenty 
years of age ; traveled over Europe ; studied banking and 
commerce ; accumulated money by speculation, and, in 
1716, became a banker in Paris. 

His maxim was "Wealth depends upon commerce," 
and his company was given a monopoly of the Canadian 
trade, and practical sovereignty over the Louisiana Pur- 
chase. By the terms of its charter, it was granted the 
exclusive right to the trade of the latter for twenty-five 
years, and, in addition thereto, possessed extraordinary 
powers. It could cultivate lands, develop mines, make 
treaties with the Indians, wage war, levy troops, erect 
forts, maintain garrisons, grant lands, fit out ships of war, 
cast cannon, establish courts, and appoint and remove 
judges. Its capital, fixed at one hundred millions of 
francs, was divided into two hundred thousand shares of 
five hundred francs each. France was on the verge of 
bankruptcy because of the extravagant expenditure of 
Louis XIV., and the national securities were almost 
worthless, but, upon the payment of one-fourth in cash, 
these could now be exchanged for the stock of the com- 
pany, which was, therefore, in great demand. 

At the time that Louisiana was first made known, a 
rumor spread throughout the Old World that all its vast 



62 THE STORY OF THE 

regions were full of mines. These had never been dis- 
covered ; still a vague report had remained in the minds 
of the people that this country concealed immense treas- 
ures. No one could tell the exact spot where these riches 
might be found, but this uncertainty of itself tended 
rather to encourage the search for them. Law and his 
company easily persuaded the French people that these 
mines, so long spoken of, had at last been found, and they 
were far richer than they had been supposed to be. To 
give credence to this, a number of miners were sent to 
Louisiana to Vv'ork them, and these were accompanied by 
a body of troops to protect them while thus employed. 

This was enough. Every man exerted himself to ac- 
quire the right of partaking of this source of wealth which 
was believed to be inexhaustible. Li addition to mines, 
there vv^ere fertile lands, and cultivators of the soil were 
wanted. The company offered free transportation to all 
who would go to Louisiana, and there take possession of 
the lands to be given them. The whole region was be- 
lieved to be the best in the world. The Mississippi be- 
came the center of all men's minds, hopes and aspirations. 
It was the most popular financial scheme that ever flour- 
ished in France. The people were possessed with a mad 
frenzy of speculation ; the wealthy sold their estates to 
enable them to purchase the stock of the company, which 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 63 

had risen many hundred per cent, while numbers of those 
without means went on board ships bound for Louisiana, 
thinking that in some unknown manner wealth would 
flow in upon them. In May, 1719, the company received 
a further concession of the monopoly of the trade of 
Africa and the East Indies and China^ and took upon it- 
self the name of the Company of the Indies. It now prac- 
tically controlled the foreign trade of the kingdom. It 
increased its capital to six hundred and twenty-four thou- 
sand shares, and in connection with Law's bank it under- 
took to pay the national debt of France. Law was pos- 
sessed of regal powers, for he now occupied the position 
of the foremost financier of his time. His house was 
beset from morning till night with applicants for stock. 
Dukes, marquises and counts, with their wives and 
daughters, waited for hours in the street before his door, 
to know the result of their applications, and the crowd 
became so great that the headquarters were removed to 
the Hotel de Soissons. 

But the system was already complete and had begun 
to decay. It was at its height at the beginning of 1720. 
The government became alarmed because of the colossal 
character of the scheme. A panic ensued. Suddenly the 
dream was dissolved ; the mines vanished ; the transports 
of joy produced by the possession of wealth gave place to 



64 THE STORY OF THE 

the gloom and silence of misfortune. Many thousands 
had lost their all, and there was financial ruin on every 
hand. The enchanted country was now held in execra- 
tion. Its very name became a reproach. The Mississippi 
v/as the terror of all men, and no recruits could be found 
to send there. The l)ank failed : Law fled from Paris, and 
after wandering over Europe for nine years, died in pov- 
erty in Venice. His scheme, the greatest of its kind the 
world has ever known, while it wrecked the fortunes of 
thousands, gave to trade a mighty impulse, and this was 
felt in Louisiana. The Company of the Indies was now 
reduced to a simple commercial corporation, with the busi- 
ness of which Law had nothing to do. It continued to 
hold its franchises in Louisiana, and henceforth controlled 
the affairs of the colony for several years. These we 
shall now proceed to notice. 

In 1717, the canton of Illinois was detached from Can- 
ada, and added to Louisiana, with Dugue de Boisbriant, 
a cousin of Bienville, as commandant. On the 9th of 
March of the following year, three of the company's ships 
— the first sent out — arrived at Mobile Bay. They 
brought large quantities of supplies, three companies of 
infantry and sixty-nine settlers. With them came a com- 
mission for Chateauguy as commandant of the militar}' 
forces of Louisiana, and one for Bienville, making him 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 65 

Governor of the colony. His first act was to send a party 
to clear the site of the present city of New Orleans. In 
a few days he followed with the newly arrived colonists, 
and, in the dense canebrakes laid out the city after the 
plan of Rochefort, in France, naming it in honor of the 
Duke of Orleans, ''who denied God and trembled at a 
star." That day he located a city with twice as much 
river navigation above it as any other city on the globe. 

In 17 18, eight hundred persons, sent by the company, 
arrived in the country, one of whom was Le Page du 
Pratz, the first historian of the Louisiana Purchase. The 
three ships bearing them sailed from Rochelle ; the first 
four days of the voyage were stormy, but fair weather 
followed. The first land seen was Puerto Rico, and the 
next, San Domingo, where, at Cape Francois, a landing 
was effected. Isle Dauphine was reached on the 25th of 
August, where "all united in singing Tc Dciun because no 
life had been lost on the voyage." There they were 
joined, three days later, by Bienville, who came to conduct 
them to the new town on the Mississippi, where they were 
to receive their assignment of lands. Of those who came, 
"some perished for want of enterprise, some for want of 
food, some from the climate, while others prospered ex- 
ceedingly." Hardy Canadian emigrants came, who were 
more successful than those from France, and others ar- 



66 THE STORY OF THE 

rived from over sea, so that in the year 17 18, fifteen hun- 
dred immigrants reached Louisiana. 

The company having resolved to profit by the experi- 
ment of Crozet, encouraged the tillage of lands. In 17 18, 
it introduced the cultivation of rice and wheat. The for- 
mer speedily became an important article of culture. Of 
the latter it was said that, "From the careless mode of cul- 
tivation, it would, at first, only yield from five to eight 
fold, running to straw and blade without filling the ear." 
In 1746, however, the culture was so far extended that six 
hundred barrels of flour were received at New Orleans, 
from the Wabash, and in the year 1750, the French of 
Illinois raised three times as much wheat as they con- 
sumed, and large quantities of grain and flour were sent 
to market; in 1797, more than two thousand barrels of 
flour were received at New Orleans from Upper Louisi- 
ana. Du Pratz had said that the plains of Louisiana were 
more valuable than the mines of Mexico, and worth more 
to trade and navigation than the richest mines of Peru. 

Large grants of land were made throughout the whole 
known part of the Louisiana Purchase. To every actual 
settler, the company gave a suitable piece of land, with 
seed to plant it, a gun, an ax, a mattock, a cow, a calf, 
and a cock and six hens. John Law, the founder of the 
company, received for himself twelve miles square ''near 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 67 

Quapaw," an Indian town at the mouth of Arkansas 
River. Here he proposed to estabHsh a ''Grand Duchy." 
M. Levins was his trustee. It was to be colonized by Ger- 
man, Swiss and French emigrants. The proprietor sent 
over accoutrements for a company of dragoons soon to 
follow, and spent one and a half millions of francs in pre- 
paring for improvements ; it would certainly have been a 
flourishing settlement, had not the troops been stopped, 
and had not the arms, provisions and merchandise, which 
he was sending there, been confiscated and sold to satisfy 
creditors after his failure. His colonists, almost to a man, 
removed and settled on the west side of the Mississippi 
above New Orleans. The place has ever since been 
known as the German Coast. 

In 1 7 19, eleven ships brought immigrants to Louisiana, 
and five hundred negroes were imported from the coast 
of Guinea. At the beginning of this year, ships arrived 
at New Orleans bringing information of a war between 
France and Spain, and Bienville resolved to take Pensa- 
cola. He collected the few regulars, and enlisted as vol- 
unteers a number of Canadian and French emigrants, just 
arrived, and with M. de Richebourge as captain, and 
Chateaugay as the King's lieutenant, he sailed away, anrl 
Pensacola was taken by surprise. The entire garrison, 
including the Spanish governor, were made prisoners. 



68 THE STORY OF THE 

These were sent to Havana, according to the terms of sur- 
render, and Bienville having detailed a garrison for the 
captured town, returned to New Orleans. Soon after, 
the Spanish man-of-war, ''Great Devil," sailed to attack 
the Louisiana settlements. She was met by the French 
man-of-war, ''St. Philip," Other vessels of both nations 
came up, and on the 7th of September, a naval battle was 
fought in Mobile Bay, which resulted in a victory for the 
French. A treaty of peace between the two nations was 
concluded the same year, and by its terms the Perdido 
River was agreed upon as the boundary line between 
French Louisiana and Spanish Florida. Thus the settle- 
ments of Biloxi, Dauphine Island, and Mobile were found 
to be in French territory. This year, too, the company 
sent two hundred miners to New Orleans. Philip Fran- 
cois Renault was in charge of them, with the title of 
Director-General of the Mines of Louisiana. He pur- 
chased five hundred slaves in San Domingo to work the 
mines, and with this force reached the Illinois country in 
1720, and established his headquarters a few miles above 
Kaskaskia, on the site of Fort Chartres, where he founded 
the village of St. Philip's. From there expeditions were 
sent out far and wide, even to the banks of the Ohio and 
the valley of the Missouri in the vain search for gold and 
silver, neither of which was found; but the lead mines of 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 69 

Missouri, including those of the St. Francis River, were 
discovered, opened, and the product smelted and shipped 
to France. While this search for mines was being made, 
Bienville sent M. du Tissenet, a French officer, from New 
Orleans, to explore Upper Louisiana. He ascended the 
Mississippi and the Missouri to the mouth of the Osage, 
up which he went two hundred and fifty miles to visit 
the Indian nation of that name; thence he traversed the 
prairie one hundred and twenty-five miles to the country 
of the Pawnees. After remaining there some time he 
journeyed fifteen days to the westward, where, on one of 
the upper tributaries of the Kansas River, he found the 
Padukah nation, from whom he received a welcome recep- 
tion. Here, on the 27th of September, 17 19, he reared a 
cross, and placed thereon the arms of France. He prob- 
ably crossed the trail of Coronado, the Spanish explorer, 
who traversed this region nearly two centuries before. 
At the same time, M. de Bourgmont went with a small de- 
tachment of French troops from Mobile and took posses- 
sion of an island in the Missouri River just above the 
mouth of the Osage, on which he built Fort Orleans. 

The Spaniards in New Mexico watched with jealous 
eyes the movements of the French in thus taking posses- 
sion of the Missouri Valley. In 1713, they had, in antici- 
pation of French occupation in the valley of the Red 



70 THE STORY OF THE 

RiveT, entered it themselves, and founded on its banks the 
town of Natchitoches, the second permanent settlement 
made by Europeans within the Louisiana Purchase. Now 
they undertook a similar movement in the Missouri Val- 
ley. Early in the year 1720, an expedition was fitted out 
at Santa P> for the purpose of founding a colony far be- 
yond the limits to which they had hitherto confined them- 
selves. The caravans directed their march toward the 
country of the Osages, whom they wished to induce to 
take up arms against their inveterate enemies — the Mis- 
souris — whose territory they had resolved to occupy. The 
Spaniards missed their course, and came directly to the 
nation whose ruin they were meditating, and, mistaking 
them for the Osages, communicated to them their design, 
without any reserve whatever. The chief of the Missouris 
who learned by this singular mistake of the danger which 
threatened his people, told the Spaniards that he would 
gladly concur in promoting the success of the undertak- 
ing, and desired only forty-eight hours in which to as- 
semble his warriors. This he did, and then, while th.' 
Spaniards slept, massacred every one without regard to 
age or sex, except the chaplain, who was spared because 
of the vestments he wore. Thus was prevented the set- 
tlement of a Spanish colony on the Missouri nearly two 
centuries ago. This massacre is believed to have occurred 
near the site of Leavenworth, Kansas. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 71 

In the last named year the company huilt Fort Chartres, 
on the east side of the Mississippi, twelve miles above 
Kaskaskia, and sixty-four below the mouth of the Mis- 
souri. Its ramparts of stone, garnished with twenty can- 
non, scowled across the Mississippi, and the surround- 
ing country. Its walls were eighteen feet high, with four 
bastions and fifty-eight loopholes. It was the best con- 
structed military work in America at that time. There 
was fixed the seat of government of Upper Louisiana, and 
there it was to continue for more than forty years. The 
next year was a busy one. Great wareli^uses were 
constructed at New Orleans, Biloxi, and Mobile. 
The company provided that the people might ob- 
tain all their merchandise and provisions at the 
last named place, or at Dauphine Island, but, if delivered 
at New Orleans, five per cent would be added ; at 
Natchez, ten per cent ; at Yazoo, thirteen per cent ; and if 
on the Missouri, or in the Illinois country, fifty per cent. 
One thousand three hundred and sixty-seven negroes 
were now brought from Africa. Immigrants continued to 
arrive, and at the close of the year it was shown that the 
company, since its organization, had dispatched forty- 
three ships to Louisiana, and that these had brought seven 
thousand and twenty people to the colony. But of this 
number, about two thousand had died, deserted, or gone 
back to France. 



72 THE STORY OF THE 

Early in 1722, the Duke of Orleans appointed three 
commissioners — Toget, Ferrund and Machinet — who had 
been nominated by the company, to divide Louisiana into 
Parishes. This was done, and they were named as fol- 
lows ; New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, Alibamons, Natchez, 
Yazoos, Arkansas, and Illinois. Thus was Illinois still 
retained as a canton of Louisiana. It was then regarded 
as the "Granary of the Mississippi V^alley." The next 
year Bienville removed the seat of government to New 
Orleans, where there were then ''about a hundred very 
humble houses," and a population of ''between two and 
three hundred souls." It had been at Biloxi three years, 
at Dauphine Island nine years, at Mobile twelve years. 
Now it was permanently fixed at New Orleans. In 1722, 
when Charlevaux saw the future metropolis of Louisiana, 
it was a "wild desert place covered with reeds and trees." 
One of the best men in the colony at this time was de la 
Chaise, who was the chief commercial agent of the com- 
pany. His honesty and integrity won not only the confi- 
dence of the proprietors, but of the people as well. His 
will was for years supreme, even the executive submitting 
to it. 

In the year 1724, a fierce war raged among the Indians 
of the Missouri Valley. In it the Missouris, Osages, Kan- 
sas, Padukahs, and other nations were engaged. M. de 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 73 

Bourgemont, who was then stationed at Fort Orleans, 
which, as formerly stated, he had erected on an island in 
the Missouri River, determined to bring about a peace 
among these warring nations around him. With a small 
detachment of French soldiers from his garrison, he set 
out on the 3d of July of this year, and proceeded directly 
to the Missouris, with whose chiefs he smoked the pipe of 
peace. Having augmented his little army, he proceeded 
to the country of the Osages, where the pipe was again 
smoked. Several warriors enlisted, and the march was 
continued to the principal town of the Kansas nation. 
There he delivered an address upon the evils of the war 
then raging, and pledged the chiefs to a truce. Many 
warriors there joined him, and all journeyed to the coun- 
try of the Padukahs, where he was hospitably received. 
There gathered the chiefs of the nations now visited, and 
Bourgemont explained to them that the great French 
chief was opposed to war, and that it was his will that all 
should live together in peace like brothers and friends, 
and if they wanted his love, affection and assistance, they 
must live thus for the future. His efforts were successful 
and hostilities ceased. He again smoked with 
them, and requested them to smoke the pipe with 
each other. To all he gave presents of red and 
blue shirts, sabres, gunpowder, balls, musket-flints, 



74 THE STORY OF THE 

gun-screws, mattocks, hatchets, Flemish knives, 
wood-cutters, clasp-knives, mirrors, combs, scissors, 
beads, awls, needles, drinking-glasses, brass wire, 
rings and other articles. Then he explained to them that 
the French flag — the beautiful fleur-de-lis — was the em- 
blem of peace and friendship, and if they accepted it, they 
must study war no more. The chiefs of each nation bore 
the flag back to their people, and within a few weeks the 
warriors of each were hunting and fishing to- 
gether, and regaling themselves in the wigwams of each 
other. M. Bourgemont returned to Fort Orleans on the 
5th of November, after an absence of four months, in 
which time he had established the rule of France in the 
valley of the Missouri, and that, too, without the shedding 
of a drop of blood. He kept a journal of the daily 
transactions, and to this Du Pratz, the historian, had ac- 
cess soon after it was written. 

Now the colony was torn by dissension, and Bienville 
was ordered to France. He sailed in January, 1724, leav- 
ing Dugue Du Broisbriant, former commandant of the 
canton of Illinois, as Acting Governor. For twenty-five 
years he had not been outside of Louisiana, except when 
on his Pensacola campaign in 1719. His successor, M. 
Perrier, arrived in the colony, March 9, 1726, and at 
once assumed the oflice of Governor. He improved New 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 75 

Orleans, enlarged its limits, discouraged the vain search 
for mines, and encouraged agriculture so that within two 
years after his arrival, rice, indigo and tobacco were 
grown successfully. Next year Du Poisson, a missionary, 
ascended the Mississippi almost to its source, and re- 
mained some time among the Dakotah Indians. 

Around Fort Rosalie dwelt the Natchez Indians, whose 
traditions and character connected them with the Mayas 
of Yucatan. They were Sun Worshipers, and kept a 
fire burning continually in their temple. Of them it may 
be said that they were the best civilized Indians who 
dwelt within the present limits of the United States. M. 
Chopart was in command of the garrison at Fort Rosalie. 
Six miles away was the White-Apple-Town of this nation. 
Its location — a beautiful one — Chopart demanded for a 
site for a plantation. The demand was refused by the 
chief. Great Sun, on whom it was made. The French 
officer then threatened to seize it by force. Then the 
Natchez planned a general massacre. This took place 
November 29, 1729, at which time the home of every 
Frenchman was attacked; the fort was taken by strata- 
gem, and on that day two hundred and fifty people fell 
victims at the hands of these barbarous people. Not more 
than twenty whites and six negroes escaped, and one hun- 
dred and twenty children, eighty women, and nearly as 



7 



I 



76 THE STORY OF THE 

many negroes were taken prisoners. A few days later, 
Dii Poisson, who had gone as a missionary to the Dako- 
tahs, but who was then stationed among the Kansas In- 
dians crossed over to Natchez, and was cruelly put to 
death. The massacre proved to be sad work for the 
Natchez nation. Governor Perrier sent a vessel to France 
with tidings of the horrible deed, and then hastened to 
prepare for war. New Orleans was fortified, and there 
were eight hundred French soldiers in Louisiana. The 
Chickasaws and Yazoos were the allies of the Natchez, 
while the Choctaws joined the French. The war was 
carried into the Indian country. On the 27th of January, 
1730, Lesueur, a Canadian officer, w^ith seven hundred 
Choctaw warriors, attacked the Natchez at St. Catherine's 
creek, eighteen miles below Fort Rosalie, and killed sixty 
of their warriors, and took tw^enty prisoners. On the 13th 
of February ensuing, Cavalier de Loubouis, with a force 
of five hundred French soldiers, which he had assembled 
at the mouth of Red River, attacked them at Fort Rosalie. 
A parley ensued, and the Natchez agreed to put all their 
prisoners — women and children — into the custody of the 
Choctaws. This they did, and that very night fled across 
the Mississippi. 

It was now the year 1730, and there were five thousand 
whites and two thousand five hundred blacks in Louisiana. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 77 

The Company of the Indies had controlled the affairs of 
the colony for fourteen years, in which it had succeeded 
no better than Crozet. And now, after having spent 
twenty millions of francs in its effort to colonize and de- 
velop Louisiana, it surrendered its charter, together with 
all fortresses, artillery, ammunition, warehouses and 
plantations, with the negroes belonging thereto, and on 
the loth of April, 1732, Louis XV., by royal proclama- 
tion, dissolved the company, and declared his Province of 
Louisiana free to all his subjects. 



78 THE STORY OF THE 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Louisiana Purchase Under Royal Government. 

Louis XV., then in the twenty-second year of his age, 
was on the throne of France, and his colonial policy was 
broad and liberal. The Louisiana Purchase was now 
called the "Province of Louisiana." M. Perrier was con- 
tinued as Governor ; M. Salmon, the Commissary of 
Marine, and M. Perrier de Solvent, a brother of the Gov- 
ernor, with the title of Lieutenant-General, both now 
came to Louisiana. The latter brought with him one hun- 
dred and fifty marines, and he and the Governor having 
augmented this force by the addition of militia, and Choc- 
taw warriors, hastened away to attack the Natchez In- 
dians, who, after the massacre of the year before, had fled 
to the west side of the Mississippi. There they made 
their final stand on the banks of Silver Creek, a tributary 
of the Black River, where, in the first battle ever fought 
between white men and Indians within the Louisiana Pur- 
chase, the Great Sun, with forty warriors and three hun- 
dred and sixty-five women and children were made pris- 
oners, taken to New Orleans, and thence sent to San 
Domingo, Where they were sold as slaves to the planters. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 79 

The nation was destroyed. The remnant that escaped 
sought refuge among the Chickasaws. 

Governor Perrier was succeeded by Bienville, the old 
veteran of the Mississippi, who again returned to Louisi- 
ana, after an absence of nine years. It was now expected 
to see a rising colony, which in time might grow into a 
powerful nation of infinite advantage to France. To aid 
in this, the government did all possible to advance colonial 
interests. To such an extent did it go in this direction 
that it even prohibited the cultivation of tobacco in France 
that the nation's supply might be grown in Louisiana, and 
the colony thus enriched by its sales at home where the 
consumption was twenty million pounds annually. 

One of the first acts of Bienville was to rebuild Fort 
Rosalie at Natchez. The Chickasaw nation had its home 
on the upper tributaries of the Tombigbee, Mobile and 
\azoo rivers. Its warriors were the fiercest and bravest 
of all the southern Indians with whom the French colon- 
ists came in contact. Bienville demanded that the 
Natchez who had taken refuge among them should be 
given up. To this the chiefs with great courage and in- 
dignation refused to comply. This meant war, and both 
sides prepared for the struggle. M. De Blanc, with six 
boats was sent up the Mississippi with orders from Bien- 
ville to D'Artaguette, Commandant of Illinois, to bring all 



80 THE STORY OF THE 

the force possible, and join him on the loth of May, 1736, 
in the Chickasaw country. The boat laden with ammuni- 
tion was left at the mouth of the Arkansas, the others 
returning to New Orleans, and a detachment was sent 
down from Illinois for it. When near the mouth of the 
Ohio, this was attacked and all on board killed, except 
Du Tissenet, Jr., and one, Rosalie, who were taken pris- 
oners, but afterward escaped. 

Meantime, Bienville went by sea to the mouth of the 
Mobile River, where he met the head chief of the Choc- 
taws, now the allies of the French. To him the merchan- 
dise given in consideration of the assistance about to be 
rendered, was delivered, and Bienville returned to New 
Orleans, where he mustered an army numbering five 
hundred and forty-four French soldiers, some militia, free 
negroes and slaves. All set out for the mouth of the 
Mobile, where twelve hundred Choctaws were already in 
waiting. On the second of April the advance up the river 
began, the Indians marching along its eastern bank. The 
destination was the Chickasaw capital, which was situ- 
ated near Pontotoc on a stream of that name, now in Lee 
County, in northern Mississippi. Here was a fort erected 
under the direction of English traders from Carolina. 
There were palisades and earthworks with portholes all 
around. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 81 

On the 20th of April, the army reached the mouth of 
the Tombigbee, where it remained until the 4th of May, 
when the line of march was again taken up, and on the 
26th it lay before the Chickasaw fort — the French soldiers 
in the center, and the Choctaws forming the two wings. 
An attack was made at once, but Bienville had no artil- 
lery, and he could not succeed. The English flag was 
flying over the fort in which were thirty traders, and in a 
battle lasting four hours, the French wxre defeated, hav- 
ing sustained a loss of thirty-two killed and seventy 
wounded. The former were left on the field of the disas- 
trous defeat, and the army fled in disorder back to the 
Tombigbee, which it descended in boats, and returned to 
New Orleans. But the rout of Bienville's army was not 
the worst. D'Artaguette, the Commandant of Illinois, 
had obeyed orders, and with thirty men from the garrison 
of Fort Chartres, a hundred volunteers from the inhab- 
itants, and. nearly the entire fighting force of the Kaskas- 
kia Indians, began his march to join Bienville. Father 
Sinilac, the founder of Vincennes, with a body of Miami 
Indians, and some Iroquois warriers, met him at the 
mouth of the Ohio, and the whole force entered the 
Chickasaw country. On the morning of May 9th, all 
were before the fort which was not reached by Bienville 
for sixteen days thereafter. D'Artaguette waited until 



82 THE STORY OF THE 

the 2 1 St, and then with his three hundred and sixty-six 
French and Indians attacked the fort. His alHes fled at 
the first fire. He with Sinilac and nineteen more of the 
P>ench were taken prisoners and burned at the stake. The 
remnant that escaped was conducted back to the Mis- 
sissippi by a boy — Voisson by name — but sixteen years of 
age. A gloom now spread over Louisiana, and Bienville 
was greatly grieved when he heard of the tragic death of 
these men. 

The colonists had now learned of the powerful enemy 
with which they had to deal, and the Governor sent to 
France for aid. This time the movement was to be made 
by the Mississippi, and a detachment from New Orleans 
ascended that river, and erected a fort as a base of sup- 
plies at the mouth of the St. Francis — the first structure 
reared by Europeans within the present limits of the State 
of Missouri. Thither went the regulars, a body of colo- 
nial militia, and a number of Choctaw warriors. . Bienville 
arrived, the army advanced, and he fixed the place of ren- 
dezvous at the mouth of the Little Wolf River — the Mar- 
got of the French — where Memphis now stands. There 
on the bluffs he built Fort Assumption, so called from the 
day on which he arrived. It was but forty-five miles dis- 
tant from the Chickasaw capital. Here the army gath- 
ered. M. de Noailles came with seven hundred regulars 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 83 

from France ; De Celeron brought the cadets of Quebec 
and Montreal ; then came De la Buissoniere, the new 
Commandant of Illinois, bringing with him a part of the 
garrison from Fort Chartres, a body of militia, and some 
Illinois warriors, until at the great review on the 12th of 
November, 1739, there were twelve hundred white men 
and twenty-four hundred Indians — the largest army that 
up to that time had ever been assembled on the banks of 
the Mississippi. Wagons and sledges were constructed 
and roads cleared that the cannon might be transported 
for the siege of the Chickasaw capital. The horses for 
this purpose were brought from Illinois. But now, from 
some unaccountable cause, the army lay here from 
August, 1739, until April, 1740. Provisions became so 
scarce that the horses that were to draw the artillery were 
eaten ; then sickness raged, and death ensued. Bienville 
gave up the thought of invasion, and resorted to diplo- 
macy. On the 15th of March he detailed De Celeron, with 
his lieutenant, M. de St. Lausent, and the cadets, to go to 
the Chickasaw capital to offer terms of peace in his name. 
The chiefs, believing this to be but the advance guard of 
the invading army on the Mississippi, hastily accepted 
the terms oft'ered, and carried the pipe to Bienville, who 
smoked it with them. Thus ended the war with the 
Chickasaws, in April, 1740. Both forts — that of Assump- 



84 THE STORY OF THE 

tion, and the one on the St. Francis — were demoHshed, 
and Bienville returned to New Orleans after an absence of 
ten months. 

The scarcity of a circulating medium hindered indus- 
trial enterprise, and to remedy this the first issue of paper 
money in the Louisiana Purchase was made in 1736, the 
amount being forty thousand dollars. Seven years later 
there was another issue, but about the only effect of it 
was to drive what little specie there was out of circula- 
tion. 

In 1743, De Verennes de la Verandrye, a young Cana- 
dian officer, endeavored to reach the mysterious moun- 
tains which the Indians asserted stood far beyond the 
sources of the Missouri. With his brother and two Cana- 
dian soldiers, he penetrated the vast unknown wilds from 
Fort de la Rene, on the Assiniboin, three hundred miles 
west of Lake Winnipeg. Journeying up the Mouse River 
to the villages of the Mandan Indians, near the site of the 
present city of Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota, 
he thence ascended the Upper Missouri, traversed the 
gorges of the Wind River Mountains, and then, at the 
"Gate of the Rocky Mountains," which range he had dis- 
covered, he reared a monument bearing the arms of 
France, and thus asserted the title of that country to the 
region now included in the States of Montana and Idaho. 



LOUISIAN^A PURCHASE. 85 

He and his companions were the first Europeans that ever 
trod the dreary wastes of the Upper Missouri. 

In 1743, Bienville left Louisiana never to return. He 
had been Governor of the colony for thirty-four years, in 
which time he had won the title of the "Father of Louisi- 
ana." He was now sixty-four years of age, and was yet 
to live twenty-five years. His successor was the Marquis 
de Vaudreuil, who arrived at New Orleans, May 10, 1743, 
at which time there were four thousand white people, two 
thousand and twenty negroes, and a French army of 
eight hundred men in the Louisiana Purchase. He con- 
firmed the treaty made by Bienville with the Chickasaws, 
and there was nevermore to be war between the French 
and the Indians in the Mississippi Valley. Like Cadillac 
in the time of Crozet, he was much interested in mining, 
and he sent miners over the plains of Illinois and Missouri 
in search of gold, silver, and precious gems. Among his 
first acts was to grant to one Deruisseau the sole right to 
control the trade of the Missouri River and its tributaries. 

Vaudreuil's administration continued ten years, at the 
end of which time he was made Governor-General of 
Canada, and went to Quebec. His successor in the gov- 
ernment of the Louisiana Purchase was Captain Louis de 
Kerlerec, an officer of the French navy, who landed at 
New Orleans on the 9th of February, 1753. His admin- 



86 THE STORY OF THE 

istration extended over a memorable period in American 
history, and ere it closed he witnessed the fall of the 
French power east of the Mississippi. In 1755, tho 
struggle between France and Great Britain, known in 
America as the French and Indian War, began. Its chief 
cause was the dispute as to the territorial claims of the 
two nations. It continued for seven years, and when it 
ended Quebec had fallen, and Vaudreuil — the former 
Governor of Louisiana — had surrendered Canada and all 
its dependencies to the British crown. Spain had been 
engaged in the war on the side of France, and the British 
had taken Havana and the Philippine Islands, but, by the 
terms of the treaty of Paris, January i, 1763, these were 
given up to Spain in consideration of the cession of the 
Floridas to Great Britain. France was, at the same time, 
as will be seen, left without a square mile of territory in 
North America. Not in all the world's history has a sin- 
gle treaty transferred so much of the earth's surface from 
one country to another. Nearly a whole continent and 
many isles of the sea changed ownership "at the scratch 
of a pen." 

By the terms of this treaty Louisiana lost the canton 
of Illinois, the extent of which was about equal to that 
of the present State in which the name is preserved, and 
which at the time contained about two thousand white in- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 87 

habitants. Orders were given to the French officers com- 
manding in the region thus ceded to surrender the forts 
therein to the British troops when they should appear to 
receive them. IntelHgence of the cession reached IlHnois 
in the autumn of 1763, and there was here, as in every 
case of a change of sovereignty, great dissatisfaction. 
Time must elapse before the British could come to take 
possession, and Nyon de Villiers, then Commandant of 
Illinois, did not wait for this, but left his second officer, 
St. Ange de Bellrive, in command, and descended the 
Mississippi to New Orleans. 

In 1755, St. Genevieve, the oldest European town in 
Upper Louisiana, was founded on the west bank of the 
Mississippi, nearly opposite Fort Chartres, by two 
brothers, Francois and Jean Valle, who here found a 
home. Soon other settlers came, and the place was never 
afterward deserted. In 1763, a corporation known as the 
Louisiana Fur Company was formed at New Orleans, 
and received a charter from Governor Kerlerec, by which 
it was granted the exclusive right to trade with the In- 
dians on the Missouri, and on all streams above it falling 
into the Mississippi. Pierre Linguiste Laclede was its 
chief man, and with several followers, among them two 
brothers, Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, he left New Or- 
leans in the summer of this year, and after a three months' 



88 THE STORY OF THE 

journey in boats up the Mississippi, arrived at Fort Char- 
tres, where he learned of the cession by France of her 
east Mississippi possessions to Great Britain. On the west 
side of that river, the sovereignty of France was, as he 
supposed, still supreme, and he there sought a location. 
This was selected sixteen miles below the mouth of the 
Missouri, and on the 15th of February, 1764, he sent 
Auguste Chouteau, with a party, to fell the forest and 
erect some cabins as a depot of supplies and deposit for 
the Louisiana Fur Company. In the autumn of the same 
year several town lots were laid out, and thus began the 
City of St. Louis, the metropolis of the Mississippi Valley. 
Three years thereafter Delor de Tragette founded Vide 
Poche — afterward Carondelet — and in 1769 Blanchette 
laid out St. Charles on the Missouri, the oldest European 
settlement in the Louisiana Purchase north of that river. 

In the meantime, the British were endeavoring to ob- 
tain possession of Fort Chartres, where the French officers 
impatiently awaited their coming. Major Loftus, with 
four hundred regulars attempted to reach it from Pensa- 
cola in 1764, but was defeated by the Indians at Loftus 
Heights, on the Mississippi, four hundred miles from its 
mouth. Then Captain Pitman, with a detachment from 
Mobile, advanced as far as New Orleans, where he aban- 
doned the undertaking. But Captain Sterling, dispatched 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 89 

by General Gage, by way of the Great Lakes, finally 
reached IlHnois, and to him De Bellrive surrendered Fort 
Chartres, which had been the seat of the French govern- 
ment on the Upper Mississippi for forty-five years, and 
with his garrison crossed the Mississippi, and on the 
17th of July, 1765, unfurled the flag of France over St. 
Louis, which that day became the capital of Upper 
Louisiana. 

Now more than forty years had elapsed since the mas- 
sacre of Natchez, and its horrors had passed out of mind. 
The mismanagement of the Company of the Indies was 
forgotten ; the name of Louisiana had ceased to be a re- 
proach ; a period of prosperity had dawned, and the banks 
of the Mississippi and the Missouri, Arkansas and Red 
Rivers were being inhabited. In 1755, the English de- 
stroyed the French settlements in Acadia, now Nova 
Scotia. This was one of the saddest episodes of modern 
history. Nearly four thousand men, w^omen and children, 
stripped of all their earthly possessions, were driven on 
board like dumb animals, packed in the holds of English 
ships, and distributed along the shores of New Jersey, 
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. Away be- 
yond the Mississippi still floated the flag of their beloved 
France, against which they had sworn, years before, 
never to take up arms, and many of them determined to 



90 THE STORY OF THE 

again live beneath its folds. Thither they made their 
way, some by sea, and others over Braddock's Road to the 
Ohio, and thence down that river and the Mississippi to 
New Orleans, where they met a royal welcome from their 
countrymen. There, in the year 1756, six hundred fam- 
ilies arrived, and found homes on both sides of the Mis- 
sissippi, from the German coast as far up as Baton 
Rouge, and on the west side to Point Coupee. In all. 
more than eight hundred Acadian families reached the 
banks of the Mississippi in the ten years preceding that 
of 1765. Then, too, the population was increased by the 
addition of many people from Canada who refused to live 
under the British flag. 

For years, interest in industrial enterprises and agricul- 
ture had been increasing, and the production of cotton, 
the culture of which had been introduced by the Com- 
pany of the Indies, received, in 1742, a mighty impulse, 
because of the invention of a cotton gin by M. Dubreuil. 
of New Orleans. This was the first gin in use in Amer- 
ica. Now orange groves adorned the spacious grounds 
around the homes in the vicinity of New Orleans. In 
1757, missionaries in San Domingo sent to their brethren 
in Louisiana some sugar canes for cultivation, to- 
gether with several negroes who understood this. 
They began its culture on a small plantation on the 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 91 

banks of the Mississippi, just above the old town of New 
Orleans. The following year, others cultivated the plant, 
and made some attempts at the manufacture of sugar. In 
1758, M. Dubreuil — the same who had invented the cotton 
gin — established a sugar estate on a large scale, and 
erected the first sugar mill in the Louisiana Purchase, in 
what is now the lower part of the city of New Orleans. 
Five years later, it had become a staple product of the 
colony. It was the greatest gift ever made to Louisiana. 

The social life, manners, and customs of the early 
French people of the Louisiana Purchase make an inter- 
esting study. They were remarkable for the talent of in- 
gratiating themselves into the good graces of the war- 
like nations of the wilderness. *'On the margin of 1 
prairie or on the banks of some gently flowing stream, 
their villages sprung up in long, narrow streets, with each 
family homestead so contiguous that the merry and so- 
ciable villagers could carry on their voluble conversation, 
each from his own door or balcony. The young men de- 
lighted in the long and merry voyages, and sought new 
adventure in the distant travels of the fur trade. After 
months of absence upon the shores of the largest rivers 
and their longest tributaries, among their savage friends, 
they returned to the village with stores of furs and pel- 
tries, prepared to relate their hardy adventures, and the 



92 THE STORY OF THE 

thrilling incidents of their perilous voyage." Such were 
the scenes in the early days of St. Louis, St. Charles, St. 
Genevieve, Arkansas Post, Natchez, New Orleans, and 
every other old French town in the Louisiana Purchase. 

Governor Kerlerec's administration drew to a close 
June 9, 1763, on which date he was succeeded by the noble 
and patriotic D'Abbadie, who, after nearly two years of 
service, died at New Orleans, on the 4th of February, 
1765. His successor was M. Aubry, who continued in 
office until the end of Royal Government in the Louisiana 
Purchase, August 18, 1769, after the national govern- 
ment of France had expended fifty millions of francs in 
the Mississippi Valley. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 93 



CHAPTER VIIL 
The LoiTisiANA Purchase Ceded to Spain. 

As the struggle between Great Britain and France for 
territorial supremacy progressed, the latter witnessed the 
fall of her strongholds — Quebec, Montreal and others — 
and it became evident that she must lose her vast posses- 
sions in America. On the west side of the Mississippi she 
owned the Louisiana Purchase, and partly in considera- 
tion of the assistance of Spain in the war, but chiefly to 
prevent it from passing into the possession of Great 
Britain, her King, Louis XV., gave it away. 

This he did secretly on the 3d of November, 1762 — the 
date of the preliminary treaty between France and 
Great Britain — when his Prime Minister, the Duke 
of Choi^seul, and the Marquis of Grinaldi, the Spanish 
ambassador at the Court of Versailles, signed at 
Fontainebleau an act by which the French King ceded to 
his cousin, Charles IIL, King of Spain, and his successors 
forever in full ownership and without any exceptions or 
reservations whatever, ''and from the sense of affection 
and friendship existing between these two royal persons," 
all that country in America under the name of Louisiana. 



94 THE STORY OF THE 

This action on the part of the French monarch was so 
unexpected and so sudden that the Spanish minister had 
no instructions regarding it, and he accepted the princely 
gift upon the condition that his action be ratified by his 
King. Speedily intelligence of the transaction flew to 
Madrid, and on the 13th of November — but ten days after 
the donation was made — Charles III. declared that 'Tn 
order to better cement the union which existed between 
the two nations as between the two kings, he accepted the 
donation tendered him by the generosity of the French 
King." 

The Island of Orleans on the east side of the Missis- 
sippi, on which the city of New Orleans stands, was in- 
cluded in the cession to Spain, and article seven of the 
definitive treaty of Paris, concluded January i, 1763 — 
but fifty-five days after the gift of the Louisiana Purchase 
to Spain — ceded to Great Britain, as has been stated, all 
the territorv owned by France on the east side of the 
Mississippi River, except the said Island of Orleans. 
It was further declared that the boundary between the 
possessions of the two nations, in America, should be 
irrevocably fixed *'by a line drawn along the middle of 
the river Mississippi, from its source to the river Iber- 
ville, and thence by a line in the middle of that stream 
and of lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea." 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 95 

No reference whatever of the cession of Louisiana to 
Spain was made in the treaty, for the reason that the mat- 
ter was kept secret between the two nations — France and 
Spain. It has been stated that Spain, in consideration 
of the return to her of Havana and the PhiHppine Islands, 
ceded Florida to Great Britain. Thus, as a result of the 
war, she lost that peninsula, but gained instead thereof 
the whole of the Louisiana Purchase. 

These acts of donation and acceptance were kept secret, 
and the King of France continued to act as the sovereign 
of the Louisiana Purchase. On the first of January, 1763, 
he appointed Nicholas Chauvier de la Freniere, Attorney- 
General ; ten days later he named the officers of the col- 
ony, and on the 29th of June ensuing, appointed M. 
D'Abbadie as the successor of Governor Kerlerec. 
Rumors of a change of sovereignty reached the shores of 
the Mississippi, and created the greatest dissatisfaction 
among the inhabitants who detested the people and gov- 
ernment of Spain. But no official announcement of the 
transaction was made until April 21, 1764, when the good 
Governor received a communication informing him that 
the Court of Versailles had transferred the title of the 
Louisiana Purchase to the Court of Madrid, and directing 
him to surrender the province to the Governor or other 
Spanish officer who should arrive at New Orleans with 



96 THE STORY OF THE 

orders from the King- of Spain to receive it. D'Abbadie 
was an ardent soldier and zealous patriot, and so deeply 
chagrined was he at what he considered the disgrace of 
his country, that his feeble health gave way, and in hag- 
gard illness he awaited alike the coming of the Spanish 
authorities and death. The latter came first. As before 
stated, he died at New Orleans, February 4, 1765, on 
which date he was succeeded by M. Aubry, the last Royal 
French Governor of the Louisiana Purchase. 

Every day the people might expect a Spanish Gover- 
nor and garrison to arrive, and they awaited in repug- 
nance and anger the coming of a change which was to 
place over their heads masters whom they hated. They 
knew not why, after they had settled the country, and 
were loyal Frenchmen, they should be transferred to the 
hands of strangers. "When we came here," said they to 
the French King, "didst thou not engage forever to pro- 
tect us with thy fleets and armies? Have we not striven 
to make thy name illustrious among the nations to whom 
it was unknown ? We hoped one day to come in competi- 
tion with thy rivals, and be the terror of thine enemies. 
But thou hast forsaken us. Thou hast bound us without 
our consent, by a treaty the very concealment of which 
was treachery. Thou hast torn us from our family to de- 
liver us up to a master whom w^e did not approve. Re- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 97 

store us to him whose name we have heen used to call 
upon from our infancy. We shall languish and perish 
with grief and weakness. Preserve us from connections 
we detest." Such were the prayer and appeal of the 
French inhabitants of the Louisiana Purchase to the 
French King, but they did not alter the arrangements be- 
tween the courts of Madrid and Versailles. 

The Spanish government, notwithstandmg its tardiness 
in assuming authority, now proceeded to take possession 
of its new dominions. Antoine de Ulloa was appointed 
Governor, and his commission directed him to assume the 
command of Louisiana. He sailed from Cuba, and with 
four-score Spanish soldiers landed at New Orleans on the 
5th of March, 1766. He was a man of distinction, a 
scholar, a historian, an astronomer, a botanist, a former 
superintendent of mines in Peru, a lieutenant-general in 
the naval forces of Spain, and founder of the naval school 
at Cadiz. But he was not fitted to govern the turbulent 
people on the banks of the Mississippi, who were then 
being transferred, against their will, from the sovereignty 
of one monarchy to that of another. According to the 
usual form he should have taken possession of the coun- 
try at once, but this he did not do. Orders continued to 
come from France ; M. Aubry, the French Governor, was 
still in command; French magistrates acted in that 



98 THE STORY OF THE 

capacity; and French soldiers — the four companies in 
New Orleans — still performed military duty under the 
flag of France. 

These things induced the inhabitants to believe that 
Charles III. was but causing an examination of the coun- 
try to be made. But now there came an order from Spain 
which prohibited the Louisianians from carrying on any 
trading connections with the markets in which they had 
hitherto sold their productions. This led them to decide 
that, since Ulloa had deferred till then to take possession, 
he should not be permitted to do it at all. In September 
he left New Orleans, and proceeded to the Balise in 
Central America, for the spirit of resistance was now rife 
on the banks of the great river. The revolutionary 
movement began on the 27th day of October, 1766, when 
armed men entered New Orleans, and, before Aubry 
knew anything of it, had control of the town. Ulloa now 
returned, and the French Governor, to protect him, had 
him placed on board a vessel anchored out in the river. 
A provisional government was now formed at the execu- 
tive head of which was a Supreme Council. This body 
adopted a resolution declaring that the Spanish Governor 
should leave the country. The rioters hastened his de- 
parture by cutting the cable which held his vessel, and he 
sailed for Cuba, whence he soon thereafter went to 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 99 

France. Thither, also, went representatives of the people 
of Louisiana. Both sides were heard, and then, on the 
28th of October, 1768, the Tribunal, by a decree, directed 
Spain to take possession. Meantime, the Supreme Coun- 
cil at New Orleans assumed the colonial government, and 
Aubry was treated with contempt. 

Ulloa did not return to New Orleans, but proceeded to 
Madrid, where he informed the government of existing 
conditions on the Mississippi, and the Spanish King went 
to work in earnest to build up a great southwest empire 
in North America. That order might be restored, and 
obedience yielded, he resolved to govern the colony with 
a strong hand, and at Aranjuez, on the i6th of April, 
1768, he signed a commission for Count Alexander 
O'Reilly, thus making him Governor and Captain-General 
of the Province of Louisiana. He was an Irishman by 
birth who had risen to prominence in the army of Spain, 
his rank being that of Major-General. He was second in 
command in Cuba, and from there was sent to the Missis- 
sippi with a fleet of twenty-five vessels and three thousand 
men. He arrived at its mouth, where he hoisted the flag 
of Spain on the 20th of July, 1769. 

The colonists, in inexpressible rage against the mother 
country, resolved to fight to the end, and then, if attacked 
by both Spain and France, they would take refuge on the 

L.cfC. 



100 THE STORY OF THE 

east side of the Mississippi, where they would form a 
repubhc, and claim the protection of Great Britain. But, 
meantime, the Supreme Council saw no alternative other 
than submission, and it sent three of its members — La 
Freniere, Grandmaison and Marent — to wait on the Span- 
ish General and tender the submission of the province, 
accompanied by the request that all those who wished to 
leave the country, should be allowed two years in which 
to dispose of their property. O'Reilly received the depu- 
tation with affability, and assured the Council that he 
should cheerfully comply with all reasonable demands ; 
that those who were willing to remain should enjoy a 
mild and paternal government. The embassy returned to 
New Orleans before which the Spanish fleet anchored on 
the 17th of August. Aiibry and the French magistrates 
counseled peace, and the next day O'Reilly at the head 
of an army of twenty-six hundred men marched into the 
parade-ground where the French officers awaited him. 
The white flag of France — emblem of submission — which 
was waving on a high pole, was now slowly lowered, and 
that of Spain hoisted in its place, while the troops of both 
nations kept up an irregular discharge of small arms. 
Thus ended the French dominion on the shores of the 
Mississippi, where it had continued for full seventy years. 
That same day the inhabitants were freed from their al- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 101 

legiance to France, and, within a few days, all who chose 
to submit to the Castilian yoke, subscribed to the oath of 
allegiance to Spain. 

Spanish sovereignty was now supreme in Louisiana, 
and only revenge remained to be taken. O'Reilly was 
clothed with unlimited power, and he was the possessor 
of a cruel and vindictive spirit. He ordered the arrest of 
Foucault, the Intendant of the colony; La Freniere, the 
Attorney-General; Noyant, his son-in-law, and Bois- 
blanc, the last two named having been members of the 
Supreme Council. A few days later, numerous other per- 
sons were arrested, among them being Marquis, Doucet, 
Petit, Marent, Caresse, Poupet, and the two Milhets, all 
of whom had been active in the late revolutionary move- 
ment. 

Villiere, who had been at the head of all the most vio- 
lent measures of resistance, had left New Orleans and 
gone to his country home, where he would have remained 
had not the late French Governor requested him to return, 
and assured him that he would not be molested. On his 
arrival he was at once surrounded by Spanish soldiers 
and carried before O'Reilly, who, hardened in cruelty as 
he was, felt some compunction at the thought of putting 
such a man to death. Villiere was accompanied by an old 
Swedish officer, who had fought under Charles XIL at 



102 THE STORY OF THE 

the battle of Pultowa, where he had received eleven 
wounds — all in facing the enemy. At the sight of this 
venerable man, whose gray hairs seemed to give sanction 
to the rebellion, O'Reilly flew into a violent passion, and 
exclaimed : '*I ought to hang you also on the highest gib- 
bet that can be found." ''Do so," replied the soldier, "the 
rope can not disgrace this neck," and, baring his bosom he 
exhibited the scars of his wounds. The tyrant shrank 
from the sight, and the old man was released. Villiere 
was confined on board a Spanish vessel anchored in the 
stream, and one day he beheld his wife rowed by in a boat. 
He knew she was looking for him, and, bursting his 
bonds, he attacked his guards, who ran their bayonets 
through his body, and he expired almost instantly. His 
dying request, addressed to the captain of the vessel was : 
"That you will give these blood-stained garments to my 
children, and tell them that it is my last command that 
they never bear arms for Spain, nor against France." 

Others were arraigned for trial. Foucault and Brault 
maintained that they owed no account of their conduct but 
to the King of France, whose subjects they had never 
ceased to be. The first was sent to Paris, and the second 
acquitted. The others pleaded, but in vain. Villiere was 
dead, and eleven more, representing "the army, the magis- 
tracy, and the trade," were selected "as examples to the 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 103 

colony." Five of these were condemned to death. They 
were La Freniere,, Noyant, Marquis, Joseph Milhet, and 
Caresse, who were sentenced to be hung. They plead to 
liave recourse to royal clemency, but the only favor 
granted them was the substitution of shooting instead of 
hanging. 

On the 28th of September, the day appointed for the 
execution, all the troops were drawn up on the Place 
d'Armes in the center of which had stood for many years 
the little mission church of St. Louis. A strong patrol 
paraded the deserted streets — the inhabitants having re- 
tired to their houses and shut themselves in, that they 
might not witness the death of their friends. The five 
victims were led out in front of the barracks, where all 
met death with the utmost courage and resolution. It 
was attempted to blindfold them, but Marquis, a Swiss 
captain, long in the service of France, indignantly op- 
posed it. 'T have," said he, ''risked my life many times in 
the service of my adopted country, and I have never 
feared to face my enemies." Then addressing his com- 
panions he said, "Let us die like brave men ; we need not 
fear death. Take notice, Spaniards, that we die because 
we will not cease to be French. As for myself, though a 
foreigner by birth, my heart belongs to France. For 
thirty years I have fought for Louis le hicn-ahne, and I 



104 THE STORY OF THE 

glory in the death that proves my attachment to him. 
Fire, executioners !" Six other prisoners — Boisblanc, 
Doucet, Marent, Jean Milhet, Petit and Poupet — were 
sentenced, the first for hfe, and the others for a term of 
years, to confinement in the dungeons of Moro Castle at 
Havana. Such were some of the horrible scenes that at- 
tended the establishment of Spanish sovereignty in the 
valley of the Mississippi. 

On the arrival of General O'Reilly at New Orleans, he 
sent Captain Rios with a body of Spanish troops to occupy 
St. Louis. Don Pedro Piernas, Lieutenant-Governor of 
Upper Louisiana, soon followed, and on the 29th of 
November, 1770, he arrived at that place, and the same 
day formally received the government from St. Ange de 
Bellrive, who had removed it from Fort Chartres four 
years before, and now the sovereignty of Spain was su- 
preme throughout the whole of the Louisiana Purchase. 
More than eight years had passed away since the deed 
of cession had been signed at Fontainebleau, and in that 
time, one colonial system — that of France — had expired to 
give place to another — that of Spain. Two nations — 
Great Britain and Spain — now owned the whole area of 
the North American continent, with the middle of the 
Mississippi, the Iberville, and lakes Maurepas and Pont- 
chartrain as the dividing line between their possessions. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 105 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Louisiana Purchase Under the Spanish 

Dominion. 

When General O'Reilly had suppressed the insurrec- 
tion at New Orleans, in which town he found a popula- 
tion of three thousand one hundred and ninety persons, 
he promulgated a form of government which was pro- 
claimed on the 25th of November, 1769. This had been 
prepared by Don Joseph Urrustia and Don Felix Rey, 
two eminent lawyers of Spain. On the i8th of February, 
1770, a supplementary code was made public at New Or- 
leans. Thus begun Spanish rule in the Louisiana Pur- 
chase, and thus the French laws were speedily supplanted 
by those of the Spanish code. 

Under its provisions the chief officer was the Governor, 
whose title was Governor and Captain-General of Lou- 
isiana. He was appointed by the King, and he was the 
head of both the civil and military establishments of the 
province ; hence, he was usually an officer of the armw 
His resident council, called the Cabildo, an hereditary 
body, consisted of twelve men chosen from the most 
wealthy and respectable families. This body governed 



106 THE STORY OF THE 

New Orleans by appointing its Mayor and other officials. 
The Intendant was an official, also appointed by the King, 
and he was entirely independent of the Governor. He 
was Chief of the Department of Finance and Commerce, 
and all public moneys were disbursed on his order. The 
Treasurer — a mere cashier — and several other officers 
were under his direction. Among others appointed by 
the King was an Auditor, who was chief adviser of the 
Governor, and an Assessor, who occupied a similar rela- 
tion to the Intendant; a Secretary of the Governor, and 
another of the Intendancy; a Surveyor-General; a har- 
bor-master, a store-keeper, and an interpreter of both the 
French and Spanish languages. In each parish there was 
an executive officer called the Commandant, who was ap- 
pointed by the Governor, and who was both a police and 
fiscal officer. Where there was a garrison, there was also 
a representative of the Intendant, who had charge of the 
revenues of his parish. Frequently assistant or deputy 
com.mandants were appointed, and these were called syn- 
dics. There was no system of local taxation. Every in- 
habitant was bound to make and repair roads, bridges, 
and embankments through his own lands. The colonial 
establishment was supported by a system of licenses and 
duties. The former yielded about six thousand dollars a 
year, while the latter, chiefly produced by a six per cent 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 107 

levy on all imports and exports alike, yielded about one 
hundred and twenty thousand dollars in the same time. 
It may be safely said that the Spanish government of the 
Louisiana Purchase was one of the best to be found in all 
the American colonial systems. 

General O'Reilly visited a numljer of the parishes, 
ascended the Mississippi some distance above Baton 
Rouge, and when he had made himself somewhat ac- 
quainted with the conditions and needs of the country, he 
left Don Antonio Maria Bucarely as Governor ad interim, 
and sailed for Cuba. Don Luis de Unzaga arrived at 
New Orleans, and assumed the government August 17, 
1772. Now a systematic survey of lands began to be 
made, and Don Pedro Piernas, Lieutenant-Governor of 
Upper Louisiana, confirmed all of the grants made to 
settlers therein by St. Ange, the late French Commandant. 
Lands were granted to actual settlers only. These could 
obtain two hundred acres for each man and wife ; fifty 
for each child ; and twenty for each slave. The size of 
the family, therefore, determined the amount of land 
which a planter could secure. 

In 1775, Piernas was succeeded as Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor of Upper Louisiana by Francisco Cruzat ; the next 
year, Bernardo Galvez became Military Commandant at 
New Orleans, and upon the appointment of Unzaga as 



108 THE STORY OF THE 

Governor and Captain-General of Caracas, he succeeded 
to the Governorship of the Province, July i, 1777. He 
was the most active man that ever controlled the destinies 
of the Louisiana Purchase. The American Revolution 
was then in progress, and in 1778, he was visited by Cap- 
tain Willing, a confidential agent of the old Continental 
Congress, whom he assisted secretly with arms, ammuni- 
tion and seventy thousand dollars in cash. Spain offered 
mediation, and when this was spurned, she declared war, 
June 16, 1779, against Great Britain. Galvez, already the 
earnest friend of the colonies, speedily organized volun- 
teer regiments, and, with fifteen hundred men invaded 
West Florida — then British territory — took Fort Bule on 
Manchac Pass, and captured Baton Rouge, taking Colonel 
Dickinson and his Sixteenth British American Regiment 
prisoners. In October, he was made a Major-General, 
and having received reinforcements from Havana, he laid 
siege to Mobile, which, in 1780, he compelled to surren- 
der. Then with an army increased to fourteen thousand 
men, he entered East Florida, and, after defeating the 
British in several engagements, invested Pensacola. Here 
he awaited the coming of a fleet from Havana, and on 
May 9, 1 78 1, the town with its whole armament and eight 
hundred prisoners fell into the hands of the Spaniards. 
Soon thereafter, the entire North Gulf coast was in pos- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 109 

session of Galvez's army, and when the war was ended, he 
was made Viceroy of Mexico, the highest official position 
in Spanish America. His successor in the Governorship 
of the Louisiana Purchase was Don Estevan Miro. 

There is but one American revolutionary battlefield in 
the Louisiana Purchase. This is St. Louis. During that 
war, Detroit was the chief military station of the British 
in the Northwest. Here many expeditions against the 
Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky frontiers were fitted 
out. Here gathered the Girtys, Elliotts, McKees, and 
other notorious renegades of the Western border. These 
expeditions were usually commanded by British officers 
or tories, and largely composed of warriors of allied 
Indian nations. The Spanish authorities, together with 
all the inhabitants of St. Louis earnestly sympathized with 
the American cause, and, fearing an attack, the people 
fortified the town by building a semi-circular wall of logs 
five feet high with three gates therein, at which cannon 
were planted. In anticipation of this, Sylvia Fran- 
cisco Cartaboni had brought a small body of troops from 
St. Genevieve to assist in the defense. On the evening of 
May 5, 1779, an army numbering more than fourteen hun- 
dred men, composed largely of Ojibway, Menomonie, 
Winnebago, Sioux and Sac warriors, together with, some 
authorities say, a hundred and fifty British regulars, the 



110 THE STORY OF THE 

whole commanded by a British officer, assembled on the 
east bank of the Mississippi, a little above St. Louis. A 
few of the enemy crossed the river that night as spies, but 
the whole army crossed early next morning, when many 
of the people, not knowing of the presence of an enemy, 
had gone to their fields. These were attacked, and those 
who were not killed, rushed to the town, where the gates 
were opened, and they were admitted. The firing alarmed 
those who were within the defenses, and the cry '*To 
arms ! to arms !" was heard on every hand. The army 
advanced slowly toward the town. Cartaboni with his 
men could nowhere be seen, and Don Ferdinando Leyba, 
the Spanish Lieutenant-Governor, was intoxicated. But 
the inhabitants determined to defend themselves until 
the last. They chose Pierre Chouteau as their leader, and 
a gallant defense it was. Fifteen men were posted at each 
gate, and the remainder were scattered along the line of 
defense in the most advantageous manner. When within 
proper distance, the assailants opened fire. This was 
answered by showers of grape and canister from the 
artillery, and a steady rattle of musketry from behind the 
walls. For a time the battle was waged with much spirit, 
but at last the assailants perceived that all their efforts 
would be vain on account of walls and entrenchments, 
which were defended by heroic men at the gates, and they 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. Ill 

slowly withdrew. About thirty of the inhabitants of St. 
Louis were killed, and an equal number who were taken 
in the fields carried into captivity. The loss of the attack- 
. ing army was never known. Because of his conduct on 
this occasion, Lieutenant-Governor Leyba was soon after- 
wards removed from office, and Francisco Cruzat was 
again sent to fill the position. At this time there were two 
thousand people in Upper Louisiana. The succeeding 
year a conflagration swept away nine hundred houses in 
New Orleans. 

In 1797, Daniel Boone, pioneer of Kentucky, after a 
ten years' residence in the Great Kanawha Valley in which 
time he had represented Kanawha county in the Legisla- 
ture of Virginia, bade adieu to his friends in the then lit- 
tle trans-Allegheny town of Charleston— now the capital 
of West Virginia— and removed west of the Mississippi, 
where he found a home on the banks of the Missouri, 
about twenty-five miles above St. Charles, and there be- 
came a citizen of Spain. On the nth of June, 1800, De 
Lassus, the Lieutenant-Governor, appointed him a syndic, 
or assistant commandant, for the Femme-Osage district. 
Here he continued to reside until the 26th of September, 
1820, when he died at the home of his son. Major Nathan 
Boone, when in the eighty-ninth year of his age. In 1840, 
his remains were removed to Frankfort, Kentucky, where 
they were reinterred with civic and military honors. 



112 THE STORY OF THE 

The emigration from Spain was never large, and the 
population increased but slowly. But under the Spanish 
rule the trade of the Louisiana Purchase was greatly en- 
larged. In the year 1799 there were 2,000 bales of cot- 
ton, each of 300 pounds; 45,000 casks of sugar of 1,000 
pounds each ; and 800 casks of molasses of 100 gallons 
each, among the exports from New Orleans. In addition 
to these, there were large quantities of indigo, peltry, 
lumber, corn and lead. So extensive, indeed, was this 
trade, that for the years 1800, 1801, and 1802, the total 
exports amounted to $2,158,000, while the imports for the 
same years aggregated $2,500,000. We may learn more 
fully of this trade and navigation, when it is known that 
in the year 1802, 268 vessels of all description entered the 
Mississippi ; and of these, 170 were American, 97 Spanish 
and one French. For the same year, 265 vessels sailed 
from the Mississippi. Of this number, 158 were Ameri- 
can, 104 Spanish, and 3 French. For the first six months 
of the year 1803, 173 vessels entered the river. Of these, 
93 were American, 58 Spanish, and 22 French. For the 
same period of six months, 156 vessels departed from its 
mouth. Of these, 68 were American, 80 Spanish, and 8 
French. Thus was New Orleans the distributing point 
for all articles of foreign growth or manufacture which 
were used on the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Ohio 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 113 

and their tributaries, and through that port went almost 
the whole export trade of the entire Mississippi Valley. 
The only exception to this was that of a small quantity of 
fine furs, and the best bear and deer skins, which were 
shipped to Canada, where they commanded a better price. 
In 1799, De Lassus caused a census of Upper Louisiana 
to be taken, and by this the population of its towns and 
villages was shown to be as follows : St. Louis, on the 
west bank of the Mississippi, sixteen miles below the 
mouth of the Missouri, had 925 people ; Carondelet, on 
the Mississippi, six miles below St. Louis, 184; St. 
Charles, on the Missouri, twenty-five miles from its 
mouth, and eighteen by land from St. Louis, 895 ; St. Fer- 
nando, in a Httle valley leading from St. Louis to St. 
Charles, 276; Marias des Lairds, three miles west of St. 
Fernando, and distant twelve miles from St. Louis, 379; 
Meramec, on the river of that name, 115; St. Andrews, 
on the Missouri, fifteen miles above St. Charles, 393 ; St. 
Genevieve, on the west bank of the Mississippi, opposite 
Kaskaskia, 949; New Bourbon on the Mississippi, three 
miles below St. Genevieve, 560 ; Cape Girardeau, on the 
west bank of the Mississippi, forty-one miles above the 
mouth of the Ohio, 521 ; New Madrid, on the Mississippi, 
eighty-four miles below the mouth of the Ohio, 782 ; and 
Little Meadow, on the Mississippi, thirty-five miles below 



114 THE STORY OF THE 

New Madrid, 49. The total population of these towns 
was 6,028, of which 4,748 were white, 197 free colored, 
and 883 slaves. These people of Upper Louisiana must 
have been busy, for it was shown to Congress that in this 
year they produced 88,349 bushels of wheat; 84,534 
bushels of corn ; 28,000 pounds of tobacco ; 965 bushels 
of salt; and 170,000 pounds of lead. They had 7,980 
horned cattle, and 1,763 horses. The same year they ex- 
ported through the port of New Orleans, produce valued 
at $73,176. Such was Upper Louisiana at the close of the 
Eighteenth century. 

There was but little domestic manufacturing during the 
Spanish occupation. The Acadians made some cotton into 
quilts and cottonades ; and in some other parts of the 
province, the families of the planters spun and wove some 
coarse cloths of cotton and wool mixed. There were, in 
the Louisiana Purchase, two cotton spinning machines at 
that time, one of which was in Iberville parish, and the 
other in that of Opelousas. In New Orleans there were 
manufactures of rope and cordage, and shot and powder, 
and one sugar refinery making annually two hundred 
thousand pounds. 

Spain did but little — almost nothing, in fact — for educa- 
tion in the Louisiana Purchase. There was one free 
school in New Orleans, the teachers of which were paid 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 115 

by the king, their business being to teach the CastiHan 
language to the children of French parents. A similar 
school was maintained at Natchez, but the work done was 
not so extensive, there being but two teachers employed. 

Now, for the first time the Louisiana Purchase began 
to be a subject of great importance in American affairs, 
and henceforth it was to occupy a prominent place in the 
history of the United States — indeed in that of the world. 
Spain was displeased with the treaty of Paris in 1783 
which terminated the war of the American Revolution, 
because it extended the western bounds of the Republic 
to the Mississippi, and made the middle of that river, from 
its source to the thirty-hrst degree of north latitude, the 
dividing line between the two nations — the United States 
and Spain. It will be remembered that below this degree 
the latter nation, at this time, owned both sides of the Mis- 
sissippi, and thus had absolute control of the navigation of 
that river for full three hundred and fifty miles of its 
lower course. This meant that both the exports and im- 
ports of the whole vast region drained by the Mississippi 
and its tributaries must be subject to duties at the Spanish 
port of New Orleans. 

The American authorities, urged to action by the men 
who were planting civilization, and founding States on the 
west side of the Alleghenies, and whose trade was subject 



116 THE STORY OF THE 

to these duties, sought to secure a treaty with Spain, hon- 
orable ahke to both nations, by which the free naviga- 
tion of the Mississippi might be secured for a commerce 
on which the Spanish authorities were then imposing a 
duty of six per cent ad valorem on all exports as well as 
imports. But Don Diego Garderoqui, the Spanish minis- 
ter to the United States, declared that his King would 
never permit to any nation the free use of the Mississippi, 
both banks of which belonged to Spain. To this he added 
that his King would not consent to any treaty implying 
the right of the United States to the navigation of that 
river. 

John Jay. afterwards Chief Justice of the United States, 
who had been engaged in this negotiation, now suggested 
to the old Congress of the Confederation, that he thought 
it would be good policy, and, therefore expedient, to 
conclude a treaty with Spain limited to twenty or thirty 
years, in which it should be stipulated that for the time 
the United States would forbear to navigate the Missis- 
sippi below the thirty-first degree of north latitude. But 
this was rejected by Congress, the seven Southern States 
voting in the negative, while the six Northern states voted 
affirmatively. Following this, that body, in 1788, re- 
solved ''That the free navigation of the Mississippi is a 
clear and essential right of the United States, and that the 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 117 

same ought to be supported as such." At the same time, 
the cry of these Western people was that no treaty should 
ever be concluded with Spain that did not secure to the 
United States the free navigation of that river from its 
source to the ocean. 

Meantime, in 1793, war between France and Spain be- 
gan, and Charles Edward Genest, the Minister of the 
French Republic to the United States, arrived at Philadel- 
phia, where he was received with great enthusiasm by the 
citizens who presented him with an address congratulat- 
ing France on obtaining that freedom she had helped the 
American colonies to secure. He maintained that the 
United States was in duty bound to aid his country in her 
war, and, notwithstanding President Washington's re- 
cently issued proclamation of neutrality, he planned a 
hostile expedition against Louisiana. There was violent 
opposition to Spain in the West, because of her restric- 
tions to navigation on the Mississippi, and Genest, resolv- 
ing to profit by this, sent four French agents among the 
people of the western country to enlist an army of two 
thousand men who, under the banners of France, would 
invade Louisiana, conquer the Spanish settlements, and 
bring them under the control of his country. In consid- 
eration of this service, the navigation of the Mississippi 
was to be forever free to the Americans, and, in addition 



118 THE STORY OF THE 

thereto, there were to be French pay, French rank, and 
magnificent grants of land in the conquered territory, for 
all who would help to win it from Spain. The plan met 
with the warmest approval in many sections, but the 
Spanish minister to the United States informed Washing- 
ton of the movement, and he issued orders to General 
Wayne, who was then mustering his cavalry in Kentucky, 
preparatory to his campaign against the western Indians 
in 1794, to hasten his artillery to Fort Massac in Illinois, 
below Louisville, and there take all possible steps to pre- 
vent this rash expedition. At this juncture, news was re- 
ceived of the recall of Genest by the French Government, 
together with a disavowal of his acts. Thus ended the 
movement which he was inaugurating. 

Commercial conditions were not improved on the Mis- 
sissippi. Again an effort was made to treat with Spain, 
and, at length, early in 1795, that country signified a will- 
ingness to enter into a treaty of friendship and naviga- 
tion with the United States. Thomas Pinckney, of Sout'i 
Carolina, was at that time United States Minister at Lon- 
don, and President Washington directed him to iiastcn 
to Madrid. This he did, arriving there about the first (;f 
June. There he met the Spanish Commissioner, Prince 
de la Paz, and what is known as the treaty of San 
Lorenzo was concluded and ratified by the King at Aran- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 119 

jiiez, April 26, 1796. It acknowledged the southern boun- 
dary of the United States to be the thirty-first degree of 
north latitude, and on the western boundary the middle of 
the Mississippi as far down as the said degree. Then the 
twenty-second article read as follows : 

"His Catholic Majesty will permit the citizens of the 
United States for the space of three years from this time, 
to deposit their merchandise and effects in the port of 
New Orleans, and to export them from thence without 
paying any other duty than a fair price for the hire of 
the stores; and his Majesty promises either to continue 
this provision, if he finds during that time that it is not 
prejudicial to the interests of Spain, or, if he should not 
agree to continue it, then he will assign to them, on 
another part of the banks of the Mississippi, an equivalent 
establishment." 

Thus at last, after ten years of worry and vexation with 
Spain, that for which the people of the trans-Allegheny 
region had clamored so earnestly — the free navigation of 
the Mississippi through its whole course — was secured; 
and, in addition thereto, another most important conces- 
sion — that of the free deposit of merchandise at New Or- 
leans for three years, and if not continued there, at the 
end of that time to be established at some other point on 
the banks of the Mississippi, within the Spanish dominion 
— was gained. 



120 THE STORY OF THE 

Now, all went well. Population increased rapidly west 
of the Alleghenies. Kentucky grew in importance ; Ten- 
nessee was admitted into the Union ; thousands of people 
found homes in the old Northwest Territory west of the 
Ohio, and in the Illinois Country, even to the banks of the 
Mississippi. Territories were organized, Pittsburg be- 
came the gateway of the West, and Marietta, Chillicothe, 
Louisville, Lexington, Vincennes and other towns sprung 
up rapidly; and, as we have already seen, commerce in- 
creased to large proportions on the Mississippi, where 
twice as much of it belonged to the United States as was 
in the hands of both France and Spain. 

But now there was intrigue on the part of the Spanish 
authorities. Baron de Carondelet,. who had succeeded 
Don Estevan Miro as Governor of Louisiana, having 
learned of the late enterprise of Genest, now sought to 
add the trans- Allegheny country to the domain of Spain, 
or to secure the establishment of an independent govern- 
ment therein. In an effort to do this, he, in 1797, but 
two years after the treaty of San Lorenzo — sent his secret 
agent, Thomas Powers, to Kentucky, where he submitted 
to prominent men — Sebastian, Innis, Murray and others 
— a plan by which the western country was to rebel and 
declare its independence of the American Union, and 
then form a government wholly independent of the United 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 121 

States. To aid in this, two hundred thousand dollars, 
twenty pieces of artillery, and other munitions of war 
were to be supplied by the King of Spain. Fort Massac, 
on the Illinois side of the Ohio River, was to be occupied, 
and the Federal troops dispossessed of the posts upon the 
western waters. In the event of their success in thus 
establishing a new government, Spain was to grant 
especial privileges — among them the free navigation of 
the Mississippi — and as an inducement to encourage this 
movement, it was intimated that she would not comply 
with the treaty of 1795, as to the United States, but would 
make every concession to the new trans-Allegheny gov- 
ernment. But the Kentuckians were loyal to the Amer- 
ican Union, and gold and the promise of future prefer- 
ment could not buy them. 

But there were abuses of the rights of navigation, 
probably, on the part of all three nations, and the Spanish 
authorities, under various pretexts, seized and confiscated 
American vessels and their cargoes. This produced much 
dissension, but the climax was reached on the i8th of 
October, 1802, when Jean Ventura Morales, the Spanish 
Intendant at New Orleans, believing, as he said, that the 
right accorded the Americans on the Mississippi had 
ceased under the provisions of the Peace of Amiens, con- 
cluded on the 27th of the preceding March, discontinued 



122 THE STORY OF THE 

the right of deposit at that port. This he did by a 
''decree," declaring that : 'T order that from this date the 
privilege which the Americans had of importing and ex- 
porting their merchandise and effects, in this capital, shall 
be interdicted." William E. Hulings, the Vice-Consul of 
the United States, at New Orleans at this time, 
transmitted a copy of the ''decree," the same day it 
was issued, to James Madison, Secretary of State. Wil- 
liam C. C. Claiborne, Governor of Mississippi Territory, 
wrote President Jefferson from Natchez, tmder date of 
October 28, 1802, and said of this act: "It has excited 
considerable agitation at Natchez and vicinity. It has in- 
flicted severe wounds on the agricultural and commercial 
interests of this territory, and it will prove no less injuri- 
ous to all the western country." James Garrard, Gover- 
nor of Kentucky, writing President Jefferson under date 
of November 3, 1802. informed him that: "The citizens 
of this State are very much alarmed and agitated, as this 
measure of the Spanish government will, if not altered, at 
one blow, cut up the present and future prosperity and in- 
terests by the roots." On the 28th of the same month, 
Claiborne wrote Manuel de Salcedo, the Spanish Gover- 
nor-General at New Orleans, calling his attention to the 
violation of the provisions of the treaty, and in most for- 
cible terms denounced and remonstrated against the act of 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 123 

the Intendant. To this Salcedo replied by saying that the 
King of Spain "has not hitherto issued any order for sus- 
pending the deposit, and consequently has not designated 
any other position on the banks of the Mississippi for that 
purpose. * * ^ I^ myself, opposed on my part, as 
far as I reasonably could the measure of suspending the 
port." Then, he added, and that truthfully, too, that ''the 
Intendant conducts the business of his ministry with a 
perfect independence of the Governor." He closed his 
letter by expressing the hope that his King 'Svill take the 
measures that are convenient to give effect to the deposit, 
either in this capital, if he should not find it prejudicial to 
the interests of Spain, or in the place on the banks of the 
Mississippi, which it may be his pleasure to designate." 
Meantime, excitement spread throughout the Mississippi 
Valley, and on the 27th of November, James Madison, 
Secretary of State, wrote Charles Pinckney, the American 
Minister at Madrid, and said: ''You are aware of the 
sensibility of our western citizens on such occasions. The 
Mississippi is to them everything. * '^ * The Hud- 
son, the Delaware, and all the navigable rivers of the 
Atlantic States formed into one stream." The Secretary 
was right in this, for as the intelligence of this act spread 
throughout the east Mississippi region, there was, from 
the banks of that river to the crest of the Alleghenies, the 



124 THE STORY OF THE 

greatest excitement and indignation. Mass meetings were 
held at Pittsburg, Lexington, and other places, and 
throughout the whole western country the public mind 
was thrown into a fever of excitement, and the entire re- 
gion was blown into a flame leady to burst forth in 
war. There, thousands of men, all inured to hardships 
and border wars, and many of them veterans of the 
Revolution, declared their intention to invade Spanish 
Louisiana. 

It was not the western country alone that was disaf- 
fected, for there was great indignation throughout the 
whole United States, and while the excitement was at its 
highest pitch. Congress convened. A few days later, 
Claiborne wrote Madison from Natchez and said : "The 
port of New Orleans remains shut against the American 
deposit. American produce is permitted to be received 
by vessels lying in the middle of the stream, but the land- 
ing of produce is unconditionally forbidden." President 
Jefferson transmitted this letter to Congress on the nth 
of January, 1803, accompanied by a special message, in 
which he said : "The late suspension of our right of de- 
posit at New Orleans is an event of primary interest to 
the United States." At once there was much agitation in 
that body, and a vigorous effort was made in the Senate 
to authorize the President to take immediate possession by 




Map of the INLAND of OrLEANX 
/or fhe possej-s/on of luhich the l/nitecf ^JtateJ' 
6e^an the nf^otiationj^ that i'nctect j'n 
fhc L ouij-tan a Purch a j^e* . 



(125) 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 125 

force of the Island of Orleans/'' and a proposition was 
made to the end that fifty thousand troops occupy and 
hold New Orleans, and this carried with it an appropri- 
ation of fifteen millions of dollars to aid in the expense of 
a war with Spain. But now the power and dominion of 
that country was nearing its end. There was to be 
another change of sovereignty in the Louisiana Purchase, 
where Spanish rule had continued thirty-four years in 
Lower Louisiana and thirty-three in L^pper Louisiana. It 
was not until April 20, 1803, that the Marquis D'Yrujo, 
the Spanish Minister at Washington, informed Madison 
that his Government had ordered the re-establishment of 
the American right of deposit at New Orleans, and it was 
then too late to mitigate the losses caused by the violation 
of the treaty provisions between the two countries by the 
Intendant at that place. 



*That long, narrow strip of land ou which is situated the city of New 
Orleans is known as the "Island of Orleans." To it many references are to be 
made in the Story of the L,ouisiana Purchase. It is bounded on the south and 
west by the Mississippi. On the north is the Iberville River, fifteen miles 
below Baton Rouge, and the most eastern outlet of the Mississippi; its waters 
unite with the Amite river, and then, after flowing forty miles, empty into 
Lake Maurepas. The Iberville is navigable only a few months in the year, 
and, indeed, it is dry a portion of the time. The eastern boundary of the island 
is formed by Lake Maurepas, twelve miles in length, eight in breadth and 
twenty north of New Orleans; by Manchac Pass, nine miles long, which con- 
nects the last mentioned lake with Lake Pontchartrain, which is forty miles 
in length and twenty-five in breadth; and by the Passes of the Rigolets, which 
unite Lake Pontchartrain with the gulf. This island is, by the winding course 
of the Mississippi, two hundred and thirty miles in length and from three to 
fifty in breadth. On it are the parishes of St. Bernard and New Orleans, with 
portions of those of Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, 
St. James, Ascension and Iberville. We shall see with what interest the 
United States authorities were afterward to regard the Island of Orleans. 



126 THE STORY OF THE 



CHAPTER X. 
The Louisiana Purchase Retroceded to France. 

In the autumn of 1802, while the indignation of the 
American people, caused by the closing of the port of 
New Orleans by the Spanish authorities, was at its great- 
est height, intelligence of the retrocession of the Louisiana 
Purchase by Spain to France was received, and only in- 
tensified it. For awhile there was doubt as to the truth- 
fulness of this report, but it was speedily confirmed, and it 
was learned that what is known as the treaty of St. Ilde- 
fonso between Spain and France had been concluded 
secretly on the first day of October, 1800. In article three 
of this document, it was declared that "His Catholic 
Majesty promises and engages on his part to cede to the 
French Republic, six months after the full and entire exe- 
cution of the conditions and stipulations herein relative to 
His Royal Highness, the Duke of Parma, the colony or 
Province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now 
has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France 
possessed it." 

It appears that the only consideration required on the 
part of France was that of a compliance with the *'condi- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 127 

tions and stipulations" relative to the Duke of Parma. 
These must be met before France could come into full 
possession of that vast region over which she was now to 
extend her sovereignty for a second time. Let us see 
what they were. 

The Grand Duchy of Parma with its two principal 
cities, Parma and Placentia — the first its capital, and both 
having universities — lay on the Lombard Plain in North 
Italy, within view of the Alps, and sheltered on the south 
by the Apennines. It was sixty miles long and fifty broad, 
and had an area of three thousand square miles. It was a 
land of rich pastures, corn and fruits, with deposits of 
copper and silver. Its theater was the most famous in 
Europe. Its revenues amounted to forty millions of 
francs annually. By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 
1748, the title to it was confirmed to the Bourbon family 
of Spain. 

South of the Apennines, and bordering on the Tuscan 
sea, in western Italy, lay the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, 
with its more than nine thousand square miles of surface, 
the extent and boundaries of which were nearly identical 
with those of the ancient Kingdom of Etruria, which was 
the cradle of the Etruscan race, and where dwelt a people 
before the founding of Rome. From its mountains flowed 
down to the sea the historic Tiber and Arno, and other 



128 THE STORY OF THE 

streams celebrated in Italian song and story. It was a 
land of wine, oil, figs and oranges, teeming with herds of 
cattle and flocks of sheep, and there were manufactured 
silks and velvets — the richest in the world. Within its 
bounds were several cities, among them Leghorn, Pisa, 
and Florence, the last named the Athens of modern Italy. 
Its revenues* amounted to a hundred millions of francs 
annually. 

Napoleon, then engaged in his "continental consolida- 
tion scheme," desired to possess the Grand Duchy of 
Parma, that he might annex it to his Cisalpine Republic 
of northern Italy. His army had already entered it, but 
Spain was his ally, and he could not, therefore, claim it 
because of a military occupation. He must secure the 
title to it by treaty stipulations, and he accordingly sent 
General Alexandre Berthier to Madrid to ascertain upon 
what terms it could be acquired. But a short time previ- 
ously the French army had taken possession of the Grand 
Duchy of Tuscany. Spain saw the westward advance of 
civilization in America encroaching on the Mississippi, 
and she regarded the Louisiana Purchase as the key to 
Mexico, which she then held under the name of New 



*These revenues were derived from one-tenth of the yearly value of every 
house; the tenth of all estates that were sold; the ground rents of the houses 
in IvCghorn and other cities ; eight percent out of the portion of all women 
when they married; five sous a head on all cattle when sold; and almost a 
general excise of all provisions. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 129 

Spain. If she could put France in possession of it once 
more, it would prove a barrier for the protection of Mex- 
ico. Ferdinand, a brother-in-law to the King of Spain, 
and to the Emperor of Germany, was now the Grand 
Duke of Parma. After considerable negotiation and 
diplomacy, an agreement was reached by which the Duke 
was to surrender all his rights, titles and claims to Parma, 
with its revenues of forty millions of francs annually to 
the French Republic, and Spain was to retrocede the 
whole of the Louisiana Purchase to France. In consid- 
eration of these concessions, France was to secure, de- 
liver, and confirm to the Duke of Parma, the rights, titles, 
and revenues — the last amounting to a hundred millions 
of francs annually — of Tuscany, and to put him in posses- 
sion thereof, with the title of Prince of Tuscany and King 
of Etruria, and to obtain for him the honors of royalty. 
Upon this agreement was based the treaty of St. Ilde- 
fonso, which, as before stated, was concluded on the first 
day of October, 1800. 

When France had complied with these "conditions and 
stipulations," then would Spain, within six months, sur- 
render Louisiana to her. Napoleon made haste, and just 
one hundred days thereafter secured, by the fifth article 
of the treaty of Luneville, concluded on the 9th of Febru- 
ary, 1 80 1, at the old town of that name which stood amid 



130 THE STORY OF THE 

the meadows beyond the little Moselle river in eastern 
France, the provisions that the "Grand Duchy of Tuscany 
shall be given up, and the same shall be possessed in full 
sovereignty by His Highness the Infant Duke of Parma." 
Ferdinand had died but a few weeks before, and his 
titles and rights had descended to his infant heir, Luis, 
upon whom Tuscany was thus bestowed. 

Napoleon now dispatched his brother, Lucien Bona- 
parte, post haste to Spain, where he negotiated the treaty 
of Madrid, concluded March 21, 1801 — just forty days 
after that of Luneville — by which the provisions of the 
treaty of St. Ildefonso were confirmed. But now a com- 
plication arose. It was discovered at Paris that Fer- 
dinand had died without assigning to the French Republic 
his rights and titles to the Grand Duchy of Parma. A 
special ambassador was at once dispatched to Madrid, 
where, on his arrival, Spain, by an act of the Crown, 
speedily made valid the French title to the estates of 
Parma. By these transactions, France acquired an indis- 
putable title to the Louisiana Purchase. It has been seen 
that France exchanged Tuscany, with its revenues of a 
hundred millions of francs annually, for Parma with its 
revenues of forty millions of francs yearly, and the 
Louisiana Purchase. The value of the latter was there- 
fore estimated at sixty millions of francs. But no official 
announcement was made for nearly a year afterward. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 131 

In July, 1802, orders from the Spanish King came 
over-sea to the Marquis of Cassa Calvo, at New Orleans, 
late the Governor ad interim, to surrender the province to 
the French Republic whenever a Commissioner should 
arrive to receive it. But now, France was almost as tardy 
in taking possession of the province as Spain had been a 
third of a century before. It was not until the spring of 
1803 that Peter Clements Laussat, representing the 
French Republic, arrived at New Orleans, where, after 
considerable delay, the Spanish Commissioner, together 
with Manuel de Salcedo, on the 30th of November, 1803, 
presented to Laussat the keys of the City of New Orleans, 
and by this form surrendered into his hands the Louisi- 
ana Purchase. There were no French soldiers, but the 
citizens fired cannon, and amid rounds of cheers the 
Spanish flag was hauled down, and that of France was 
run up. Then, Laussat issued a proclamation, informing 
the people that they were again under the government of 
France, and there was great rejoicing on the banks of the 
Mississippi. 



132 THE STORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XL 

The United States Endeavoring to Secure Control 
OF THE Mississippi River. 

Our story has progressed until we now approach one 
of the most important events — the purchase of Louisiana 
— an account of which is recorded in the whole history of 
America. Our best sources of information regarding it 
are to be found in the diplomatic correspondence of the 
United States for the years 1801 to 1803, inclusive, but 
before examining these, let inquiry be made regarding 
the men whose names are prominently connected with the 
history of that transaction. 

On the 4th day of March, 1801, a new administration 
of the United States Government began. Thomas Jeffer- 
son then became President. He was born in Virginia in 
1743 ; studied at William and Mary College; was a mem- 
ter of the committee to draft the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and was the author of that document, as he 
was, also, of the statute providing for religious freedom 
in Virginia ; was a Governor of that State ; a Minister to 
France in 1785; Secretary of State under Washington; 
Vice-President during the administration of John Adams, 
and elected to the Presidency in 1800. 




He carefully watched the trend of affairs in Great Britain while 

the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase were in 

progress at Paris. 



(133) 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 133 

James Madison, whom Jefferson made his Secretary of 
State, was born in Virginia ; was graduated from Prince- 
ton College, where he was distinguished for his knowl- 
edge of the Hebrew language; was a member of the 
Executive Council of his native State; a member of the 
Continental Congress, and of the convention in Philadel- 
phia in 1787 which framed the Federal Constitution; and 
a member of the national Congress when he entered the 
cabinet of Jefferson, in which he remained until he was 
himself elected to the Presidency. 

President Jefferson named Rufus King as Minister to 
Great Britain. He was born in that part of Massachu- 
setts now included in the State of Maine ; was graduated 
from Harvard College in 1777; served in the Revolution- 
ary War as aide to General Sullivan ; was a member of 
2. the Continental Congress in 1784; a member of the con- 
vention that framed the Federal Constitution, and one of 
the signers of that document; removed to New York in 
1788, and the next year was elected a Senator in Con- 
gress. He was appointed Minister to Great Britain by 
Washington, and served in that capacity throughout the 
administration of John Adams, and through five years of 
that of Jefferson. As a diplomatist and political writer 
he displayed great ability. 

Charles Pinckney was a man worthy of the confidence 
of the American people. He was born in Charleston, 



134 THE STORY OF THE 

South Carolina ; received a good education ; entered the 
Revohitionary Army when but a boy, and was for a time 
held a prisoner at San Augustine, Florida; was a mem- 
ber of the State Legislature ; a member of the convention 
which framed the Federal Constitution, in 1787, and 
President of the convention of South Carolina which rati- 
fied it. He was a representative of a family of patriots, 
ever active in the service of his country at home, and 
Jefferson appointed him Minister to Spain, that he might 
worthily represent it abroad. / P 6 / 

Robert R. Livingston was^ appointed Minister to 
France ; he was born in New York ; was graduated from 
Kings College; was a member of the Continental Con- 
gress; one of the committee to draft the Declaration of 
Independence; and in 1781, was made Secretary of For- 
eign Affairs under the old Confederation. He was 
wealthy, and a representative of a distinguished family; 
a man of the world, possessed of social tact and business 
ability; was remarkably well informed, and broad and 
liberal in his views; and on all classes of subjects dis- 
played uncommon intelligence. 

There was another distinguished American whose name 
was later to be connected with the story of the purchase 
of Louisiana. This was James Monroe, of Virginia. He 
was educated at William and Mary College ; enlisted in 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 135 

the Continental army, in which he displayed great brav- 
ery. He was Military Commissioner of Virginia, a mem- 
ber of the Continental Congress, and a member of the 
convention, at Richmond, which ratified the Federal Con- 
stitution ; a United States Senator ; Minister to France 
in 1794; a Governor of Virginia, and in the years which 
were to come, was to serve two terms as President of the 
United States. 

In France, there had been ten years of the most re- 
markable history which it has been the lot of any nation 
— ancient or modern — to make. There a king had been 
beheaded ; a revolution, without a parallel in the annals 
of the world, had swept away a monarchy and established 
on its ruins a republic, governed at first by a Directory 
which had been overthrown to give place to a Consulate 
of three members, of which Napoleon Bonaparte, the 
"Corporal of Corsica," and the conqueror of Europe, was 
at the head, with the title of First Consul. There was, 
at this time m Europe, temporary peace, and he gave his 
attention to internal reforms. Order was everywhere 
seen, and he restored whatever was good and valuable of 
the old institutions which the tempest of revolution had 
not swept away. He reformed the judiciary, and in these 
tliree years caused to be prepared the famous code which 
still bears his name, and which is still the basis of law in 



136 THE STORY OF THE 

x^fy^ -some European countries. He had called into his min- 
istry or cabinet the wisest men in all departments of 
knowledge, and who were the first statesmen of France. 

Of these, Charles Maurice Talleyrand was the Minis- 
ter of Exterior Relations. He was born in 1754, his 
father being an officer in the army of Louis XV., and his 
mother a member of the royal household of Versailles. 
He was educated at the Academy of St. Sulpice, where 
he distinguished himself as a student; became a member 
of the States-General; Minister of Louis XVL to the 
Court of St. James ; traveled in the United States in 
1794, bringing with him a letter of introduction from 
Lord Lansdowne to President Washington ; participated 
in the French Revolution, and was one of the most pro- 
gressive and thoughtful statesmen that France ever pro- 
duced. Under the rule of the Directory he was Minister 
of Foreign Affairs, and was continued in the same office 
by the First Consul, but under another title. 

Another member of the French ministry was Francois 
Barbe de Marbois, who as a young man had been Secre- 
tary of Legation at Philadelphia in the last years of the 
American Revolution, and, later, charge d'affaires. He 
wedded a daughter of Governor Moore, of Pennsylvania. 
Afterwards he located the French consulates in the 
United States in which he spent more than ten years. In 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 137 

this time he compiled for pubHcation Jefferson's ''Notes 
on Virginia," the first edition of which was pubHshed in 
Paris. He was at this time the Minister of the Treasury, 
and an ardent friend of America. 

Still another name was prominent in the ministry of 
the French Republic. It was that of General Alexandre 
Berthier, who had served as a captain and topographical 
engineer under La Fayette and Rochambeau in the Amer- 
ican Revolution. He commanded the French army that 
in 1799 overran Italy, and occupied the city of Rome, and 
the next year negotiated and signed the treaty of Ilde- 
fonso, thus securing to France the title to the Louisiana 
Purchase, and now became Napoleon's Minister of War. 

King Charles IV. was then on the throne of Spain ; his 
Queen was Maria Louisa of Parma ; his Prime Minister 
was Emanuel Godoy; Chevalier J. Nicholay D'Azura 
was his Minister at Paris, and M. Casa Yrujo, in a sim- 
ilar capacity, represented the Court of Spain at Washing- 
ton City. 

George III. was King of Great Britain, and Lord 
Hawkesbury was his Secretary of Foreign Affairs. 

Such, in brief, were the men who made the diplomatic 
history of the Louisiana Purchase. 

On the 29th of March, 1 801— twenty-five days after 
the administration of Jefferson began — Rufus King 



138 THE STORY OF THE 

wrote from London the first intimation that the United 
States Government received of the retrocession of the 
Louisiana Purchase by Spain to France. This intelli- 
gence had created excitement in London, where the Brit- 
ish authorities beheld, in the rise of the French power in 
America, the conquest of their Canadian possessions 
wrested from France nearly forty years before. Now it 
caused alarm in the United States where the people saw 
in this, a menace to western settlement, to commerce and 
the navigation of the Mississippi, the latter most important 
interest, not only of the people on the west side of the 
Alleghenies, but of the future prosperity of the nation. 
This caused the Americans to look to the southward for 
an outlet to the sea, either by the Iberville River and 
Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, or by way of the 
Tombigbee and Mobile Rivers. But this meant the own- 
ership of West Florida, or rather, of both Floridas,* 



*Florida when first defined was of much greater extent than the State now 
bearing that name. Then it extended from the gulf northward to the 3]st 
degree of latitude, and from the Atlantic on the east to Lakes Pontchartrain 
and Maurepas, and above the Iberville River, to the Mississippi on the west. 
It thus contained what is now eastern Louisiana and the southern parts of 
Mississippi and Alabama below the said parallel. For two centuries Florida 
with this extent belonged to Spain, and as early as 1719 that nation recognized 
the region as being divided into two parts by the Perdido River, which now 
forms the boundary between the States of Alabama and Florida. In 1763 
Spain ceded the entire region to Great Britain in consideration of the return 
of Cuba, which the British had conquered the preceding year. Now Florida 
was divided in two provinces — East and West Florida — the former east of the 
Perdido River and identical with the present State, and the latter west of the 
Perdido, and, as stated, extending westward to Lakes Maurepas and Pontchar- 
train and to the Mississippi above the Iberville. Now they were spoken of 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 139 

which it was believed, had now been ceded to France. 
If these could not be secured, then, would the French 
Republic sell the Island of Orleans on which stands 
the city of New Orleans? For two years the United 
States and France had been engaged in a war on the 
ocean, but this had been terminated by a treaty concluded 
at Paris on the 30th of September, 1800, articles two and 
five of which left the matter of debts due by either na- 
tion to the citizens of the other, for future adjustment, 
but those to whom they were due were authorized to 
prosecute such claims. In these two years, French 
privateers had captured and destroyed a vast volume of 
American commerce, and already the United States was 
urging the claims of its citizens for payment. These 
were known as the French "spoliation claims." Now, 
would France cede the Island of Orleans and the Floridas 
— if she possessed them — in payment of these claims? 



as the Floridas. Both were given colonial forms of government and some 
Carolinians removed thither, and about fifteen hundred Greeks, Minorcans 
and Italians were brought over as colonists from the Mediterranean. But 
when the Revolution began, the inhabitants of these provinces were so few 
that they did not unite with the Thirteen Colonies in their struggle for inde- 
pendence. In 1781 West Florida was conquered by an army from the I,ouisiana 
Purchase under Galvez, the Spanish Governor and Captain-General, and in 
1783. Great Britain, after holding them for twenty years, retroceded both to 
Spain in exchange for the Bahama Islands. Now came a period of decadence 
and many of the inhabitants left the country. In the negotiations leading up 
to the purchase of r,ouisiana the Floridas played an important part, the 
French asserting that they were included in the Louisiana cession, the Span- 
iards denying this, and the Americans endeavoring to secure them from 
either nation. 



140 THE STORY OF THE 

Would she sell them? Or, would she sell the Island of 
Orleans, and thus give to the United States absolute con- 
trol of the Mississippi ? Answers to these questions now 
became the subject of negotiation. The thought of pur- 
chasing the control of the Mississippi was not new. It 
originated with Benjamin Franklin, who while in Paris 
wrote John Jay in 1780 — more than twenty years before 
— and said : "Poor as we are, yet, I know we shall be 
rich; and I would rather agree with the Spaniards [then 
the owners] to buy at a great price the whole of their 
right in the Mississippi than to sell a drop of its waters." 
Thus, with almost prophetic vision the old philosopher 
then saw that which it would be necessary to do in the 
future. 

On the first of June, 1801, Lord Hawkesbury, in Lon- 
don, while talking to Rufus King, introduced the subject 
of the retrocession of Louisiana — the first time it had 
been mentioned at court — and asked him what he thought 
of it. King, who believed it dangerous to the interests 
of both their respective countries, but preferred not to 
commit himself, replied by quoting the famous saying 
of Montesquieu, 'That it is happy for trading nations that 
God has permitted Turks and Spaniards to be in the 
world, since of all nations they are the most proper to 
possess a great empire with insignificance." On the 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 141 

20th of November ensuing, King sent from London to 
Madison the first copy of the treaty of St. Ildefonso that 
reached the United States. From this it was learned that 
Spain's compensation for the Louisiana Purchase to- 
gether with the Duchy of Parma, was the cession by 
France of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. 

Robert R. Livingston was given his commission and 
letters of credence on the 28th of September, 1801, and 
having received his instructions from Secretary Madison, 
''to make inquiry regarding the Spanish cession of Lou- 
isiana," he sailed for France in the frigate ''Boston," 
bound for the Mediterranean Sea, which landed him at 
P>ordeaux, and then continued her voyage, while he pro- 
ceeded to Paris. He vvas an ardent advocate of freedom, 
and he knew that nothing short of the change that had 
taken place could have lessened the calamities of France, 
and he assured the ministers of the French Republic that 
he meant to have no intrigues with its enemies. In con- 
sequence of this, he soon acquired a degree of favor at 
Court, such, indeed, as the ministers of other nations did 
not have accorded them. And, as a rule, they answered 
his correspondence politely if not satisfactorily. He was, 
therefore, soon a favorite with the First Consul, and with 
the more liberal and intelligent of the statesmen who sur- 
rounded him. They had assisted in freeing a people 



142 THE STORY OF THE 

from a monarchy ; so had he. On his arrival, ''I found/' 
said he, ''the credit and character of our nation very low.. 
' Our people were considered as interested speculators 
whose god was money." He was, at once, about the busi- 
ness before him, and on the loth of December he wrote 
Madison, saying, "This Parma business is settled," mean- 
ing that the retrocession of the Louisiana Purchase had 
actually taken place. The next day when one of the min- 
isters of the French Republic spoke in his presence of the 
lack of means to pay the public debts, he suggested to 
him the sale of the Island of Orleans to the United 
States. To this the minister replied promptly by saying, 
"None but spendthrifts satisfy their debts by selling their 
lands." This is the first reference to be found in the 
diplomatic correspondence between the two nations re- 
lating to the sale of any part of the Louisiana Purchase. 
Meantime, as the days passed away, Livingston was urg- 
ing upon the ministers the payment of debts due Amer- 
ican citizens, and Fulwar Skipwith, the United States 
Consul at Paris, was equally importunate in the matter of 
pressing these claims. 

Madison now requested Livingston to bring the mat- 
ter of the cession of the Island of Orleans and West 
Florida to the United States directly to the attention of 
the French authorities. This he did on the 2d of Febru- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 143 

ary, 1802, when he wrote Charles M. Talleyrand, and 
desired to know ''if it would be practicable to make such 
arrangements between the two nations as would, at the 
same time, aid the financial obligations of France, and 
remove by a strong natural boundary all further causes 
of discontent between her and the United States." By 
this he meant the cession of the Island of Orleans to the 
United States when the Mississippi would become the 
/7 "strong natural boundary" between the two nations. To 
this communication no reply was ever made. 

On the 5th of February, 1802, King wrote Madison 
from London saying that he had information that, in 
compliance with the wish of Napoleon, France would 
proceed speedily to colonize Louisiana. This report was 
confirmed in a letter written the next day by Livingston 
to Madison, saying, ''Statesmen here say that the settle- 
ment of Louisiana will occasion a great waste of men 
and money. But," he adds, "Napoleon is much attached 
to the scheme, and it must be supported. * >i^ * Gen- 
eral Bernadotte is designed for the command of the Lou- 
isiana expedition, and he has asked for ten thousand 
men." It was true that Napoleon was determined to oc- 
cupy and colonize Louisiana. He beheld in it a new 
Egypt, and saw in it a colonial establishment that should 
counterbalance the eastern establishment of Great Britain. 



144 THE STORY OF THE 

He saw in it a position for his generals, and, what was 
more important in the state of things then existing, he 
saw in it a place for the ostracism of suspected enemies. 
Only a few days before this, Barbe Marbois, the Minis- 
ter of the Treasury, had remarked to Livingston that the 
French Republic considered its newly acquired posses- 
sions an excellent ''outlet for its turbulent spirits." 

This information intensified interest in the United 
States, for it was the policy of the American government 
to discourage, if possible, the occupation and colonization 
of Louisiana. On the i8th of April, 1802, President Jef- 
ferson, writing Livingston in Paris, said : 

''The cession of Louisiana by Spain to France works 
most sorely on the United States. On this subject the 
Secretary of State has written fully, yet I cannot forbear 
recurring to it personally, so deep is the impression it 
makes on my mind. It completely reverses all the polit- 
ical relations of the United States, and will form a new 
epoch in our political intercourse with all nations of any 
consideration. France is the one which, hitherto, has 
offered the fewest points in which we could have any 
conflict of right, and the most points of a communion of 
interest. From these causes we have ever looked to her 
as our natural friend, as one with which we never could 
have an occasion of difference. Her growth, therefore. 





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LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 145 

we viewed as our own — her misfortunes ours. There is 
on the globe one single spot, the possessor of which is 
our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, 
through which the produce of three-eighths of our terri- 
tory must pass to market, and from its fertility it will, 
ere long, yield more than half of our whole produce, and 
certainly more than half our inhabitants. France placing 
herself in that door assumes to us the attitude of defense. ^^ 
* >!< * ji-,g (j^y ^1-,^!- France takes possession of New 
Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her for- 
ever within her low-water mark. It seals the union of 
two nations, who, in conjunction, can maintain exclusive 
possession of the ocean. From that moment we must ' 
marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation. We must I 
turn all our attention to a maritime force for which our re- 
sources place us on very high gronnd ; and having formed 
and connected together a power which may, under re- i 
enforcements of her settlements here, impossible to ' 
France, make the first cannon which shall be fired in ; 
Europe the signal for tearing up any settlements she may ( 
have made, and for holding the two continents of Amer- \ 
ica in sequestration for the common purposes of the 
United States and British nations. . This is not a state of 
things we seek or desire. It is one which this measure, 
if adopted by France, forces on us as necessarily as any 1 




146 THE STORY OF THE 

Other cause by the laws of nature, brings its necessary 
effect. Every eye in the United States is now fixed on 
the affairs of Louisiana. Perhaps nothing since the 
Revolutionary War has produced more uneasy sensa- 
tions through the body of the nation." 

Speaking further of the relations of the two nations, he 
said that if anything could reconcile these, ''it would be 
the ceding to us of the Island of Orleans. * >!= * This 
would, in a great degree, remove the ceaseless jarring 
and irritation between us and, perhaps, for such a length 
of time as might produce other means of making the 
measure permanently conciliatory to our interests and 
friendship. >i- =i^ * jf France changes that relation, it 
embarks us necessarily as a belligerent power in the first 
war in Europe. In that case, France will have held pos- 
session of New Orleans during the interval of a peace, 
long or short, at the end of which it will be wrested from 
her." 

The summing up of it all was that if France would 
cede the Island of Orleans to the United States for 
an equivalent in money, then the ''marrying" with Great 

// Britain would not take place, and France could have the 
/' benefit of an American guarantee of sovereignty west of 

// the Mississippi River. He sent this letter by Dupont de 
Nemours, open, expressly and avowedly that its contents 
might be made known in France. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 147 

The authorities of Great Britain were favorable to the 
views expressed by Jefferson, for, on May 7, 1802, while 
his letter was in transit on the ocean, Lord Hawkesbury 
wrote Rufus King and said: 'It is impossible that so 
important an event as the cession of Louisiana by Spain 
to France should be regarded by the King in any other 
light than as highly interesting to His Majesty and the 
United States, and should render it more necessary than 
ever that there should subsist between the two govern- 
ments that spirit of confidence which is become so essen- 
tial to the security of their respective territories and pos- 
sessions." At the same time he informed King that his 
Government had received no official communication from 
either Spain or France, and stated that his sovereign was 
anxious to learn the sentiments of the Americans on 
every part of this subject, and the line of policy which 
they would be inclined to adopt in the event of this ar- 
rangement being carried into effect. This letter was in 
reply to one written by King on the 21st of April, asking 
that ''the British Government will, in confidence, explain 
itself upon this subject." 

In the early spring of this year, there was uncertainty 
and anxiety at Washington, and on May ist Madison 
wrote Livingston urging him to press the matter of the 
purchase of the Island of Orleans, and of the Floridas, if 



148 THE STORY OF THE 

the latter be included in the cession, and added : "In 
every view it would be a most precious acquisition." 
Nine days later he wrote Charles Pinckney, at Madrid, 
instructing him, if the cession had not taken place, to en- 
' deavor to secure the cession of the Spanish territory east 
of the Mississippi, including the Island of Orleans, 
to the United States, with the Mississippi as a common 
boundary, with a common use of its navigation for both 
nations. 

Meantime, the colonial scheme in France went on, as 
appears from Livingston's letter to Madison, under date 
of May 28th, in which he stated that Louisiana would 
certainly be colonized by the French ; that General Ber- 
nadotte was to command; that Collet was to be second 
in command; that Adet was to be colonial prefect; but 
that the expedition was delayed because of a misunder- 
standing between France and Spain as to the boundaries 
of Louisiana — the former asserting that the Floridas 
were included in the cession, while the latter denied this, 
and insisted upon the strict meaning of the term "Lou- 
isiana." Spain was determined to hold the Floridas as 
security for the protection of her vast territories in South 
America and Mexico, while France desired to possess 
them that she might prevent the United States from ob- 
taining a controlling influence in the Mexican Gulf. She 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 149 

therefore insisted, and rightly, too, that for her there 
could be no Louisiana without the Floridas. But now all 
uncertainty was to cease at home and abroad, for on the 
second day of June, 1802, J. Nicholay D'Azara, the 
Spanish Minister at Paris, officially informed Livingston 
of the retrocession of the Louisiana Purchase, and, fur- 
ther, that the Floridas were not included in it. But 
France so much desired to possess them, that now Gen- 
eral Bournonville was sent post haste to Madrid, where 
in the first conference with Emanuel Godoy, the Spanish 
Premier, he proposed to restore the Duchy of Parma to 
Spain in exchange for the Floridas, and when this was 
declined, he offered to pay forty mxillions of francs for 
them. But this, too, was declined. Livingston watched 
the progress of this negotiation, for he felt that if France 
should obtain a title to the Floridas, she would never sell 
the Island of Orleans ; rather she would hold it, and thus 
continue in absolute control of the navigation of the 
Mississippi River. While awaiting the issue of the nego- 
tiation at Madrid, Talleyrand declared to him, with ref- 
erence to the French occupancy of the Louisiana Pur- 
chase, that nothing would be done that would give the 
people of the United States any just ground for com- 
plaint; that, on the contrary, their vicinity would pro- 
mote our friendship. 



150 THE STORY OF THE 

Now, for the first time, Livingston gave evidence of 
perplexity, when, on writing Madison, on the 20th of 
May, he said that all of his communications had thus far 
terminated "in nothing." But he never lost sight of the 
claims of his fellow citizens, and only two days before 
this he had addressed a communication to Talleyrand, in 
which he made an imperative demand on the French 
Government for the payment of these debts. He again 
wrote Madison, on the 30th of July, and said : "The only 
thing that can be done is to endeavor to obtain a cession 
of New Orleans, either by purchase or by offering to 
make it a port of entry to France on such terms as shall 
promise advantage to her commerce, and give hopes of 
introducing her manufactures and wines into that coun- 
try." Ten days later, he said that he could "get nothing 
from the French Government regarding Louisiana." 
This was true so far as official information was concerned, 
but he was a careful observer of what was passing 
around him, and on the 6th of August, he informed Mad- 
ison that the dispute between France and Spain regard- 
ing the Floridas had been settled ; that the French col- 
onization scheme went on ; that General Victor had been 
appointed to the supreme command of the military estab- 
lishment of Louisiana ; that he was to have a general of 
division, and two generals of brigade, a controller of 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 151 

forests, and three thousand men, and that two milHons of 
francs were appropriated for the Louisiana service. Then 
he expressed the thought that a war between France and 
Great Britain might retard the movement, and added : 
"Good may come out of this evil if it shall happen." 

In the month of August, Livingston was engaged in 
an effort to prevent the colonization of the Louisiana Pur- 
chase, and he busied himself in the preparation of an ex- 
tended "Memoir to the French Government," in which 
he endeavored to answer the question : "Whether it will 
be advantageous to France to take possession of Louisi- 
ana?" His conclusion was that it would not and could 
not be profitable to do this. He considered the subject 
under two heads : First — As it affects the commerce and 
manufactures of France. Second — As it affects her posi- 
tion and relative strength. These were fully discussed, 
and he declared that : 

"Colonies are never cherished for themselves, but on 
account of the influence they have on the general pros- 
perity of the nation, and as one man at home contributes 
more to this than two at a distance, no wise nation col- 
onizes but when it has a superfluous population, or when 
it has capital that cannot otherwise be rendered produc- 
tive." He closed this Memoir by saying : "The cession of 
Louisiana is, however, very important to France, if she 



152 THE STORY OF THE 

avails herself of it in the only way that sound policy 
/^ would dictate. I speak of Louisiana proper, in which I 
do not include the Floridas, presuming that they make no 
part of the cession. Since by this cession she may acquire 
a right to navigate the whole Mississippi and a free 
trade; and, if she knows how to avail herself of this cir- 
cumstance by a perfect understanding with the United 
States, she will find a vent through it for a vast variety of 
her commodities when she has given the people of the 
western States the habit of consuming them in preference 
to those they receive from Great Britain. This can only be 
done by affording them cheaper. She can only afford 
them cheaper by interesting the American merchant in 
their sale, and having the use of his capital, and by en- 
gaging the Government of the United States to give them 
preference. These objects can only be obtained by a ces- 
sion of New Orleans to the United States with a reserva- 
tion of a right of entry at all times, free from any other 
duties than such as are exacted from the vessels of the 
United States, together with the right to navigate the 
Mississippi ; this will give her ships an advantage over 
those of any other nation. * * * While on the other 
hand, should France retain New Orleans, and endeavor 
to colonize Louisiana, she will render herself an object 
of jealousy to Spain, Great Britain and the United States, 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 153 

the three of whom — Spain on the west, Great Britain on 
the north, and the United States on the east — would dis- 
courage her commerce." 

Twenty copies of this ''Memoir" were prepared and dis- 
tributed among the ministers and other officials of the 
French Republic. It is the most important State paper ' 
connected with the diplomatic correspondence relating to ,' 
the Louisiana Purchase, except the treaty itself. 

On the 30th of A'ugust, Livingston, still in great earn- 
est, wrote direct propositions to the French Government 
on the subject of Louisiana, but was assured by Talley- 
rand that any offer made at that time was premature, and 
that Louisiana would be occupied ; that this w^as abso- 
lutely determined upon, and that the expedition would 
sail for that purpose in about six weeks. By the first of 
September, he had again grown impatient because of the 
long delays on the part of Talleyrand and others to reply 
to his communications, and in his letter to Madison on 
this date, he said : ''There never was a government in 
which less can be done by negotiation. There are no peo- 
ple, no legislature, no councillors. One man is every- 
thing. His ministers are mere clerks, and his legislators 
and councillors but parade officers. All reflecting men 
are opposed to the wild expedition to Louisiana, but no 
man dares tell Napoleon so. But I am persuaded that the 



154 THE STORY OF THE 

whole will end in the relinquishment of the country — an 
abandonment of the enterprise. * * * There has 
been a rupture with Portugal ; England is sour ; and the 
action of this government will not suffer peace to con- 
tinue." 

Madison wrote Livingston on the 15th of October, and 
said : "If the occasion can be so improved as to obtain for 
the United States, on convenient terras, New Orleans and 
the Floridas, the happiest of issues will be given to one 
of the most perplexing questions." Time passed ; little 
progress was made, but Livingston was constantly seek- 
ing opportunities to advance American interests. On the 
26th of October he was extremely fortunate in having a 
conversation with Joseph Bonaparte, a brother of Napo- 
leon, a brother-in-law of General Bernadotte, whose sis- 
ter he had married, and who was himself soon to become 
King of Spain, and later of the two Sicilys. The subject 
of Louisiana was fully discussed, and the latter made a 
confidante. He said that he would receive in an informal 
way any communication which Livingston might make, 
but added: "My brother is his own counsellor; but he 
is a good brother ; he hears me with pleasure, and I have 
access to him at all times. T have an opportunity of turn- 
ing his attention to a particular subject that might other- 
wise be passed over." Livingston asked him if he had 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 155 

read his ''Memoir to the French Government." He re- 
plied that he had, and that he had conversed upon the 
subject with the First Consul, who, he found had read it^^^ 
with attention, and that he had told him he ''had nothing i"^ 
more at heart than to be upon the best of terms with the 
United States." Livingston then spoke of the debts due 
from the French Government to American citizens — a 
subject he ever made prominent — and expressed the hope 
that these might be adjusted by the cession of New Or- 
leans and the Floridas, if the latter should ever come into 
the possession of France. Joseph then asked him whether ' 
the United States would prefer the Floridas to Louisiana.^ 
Livingston replied that "as between the two, there was no 
comparison in their value, but that the United States did / 
not want to extend their boundaries across the Missis-/ 
sippi. * * ^ That all they sought was security, and 
not extension of territory." To this Joseph replied that 
"to secure any additional cession from Spain would be 
very difficult." By this he meant the cession of the Flor- 
idas. Now Livingston had found an avenue by which he 
could reach the First Consul other than through a tardy 
ministry. The name of Joseph Bonaparte is scarcely 
mentioned, hereafter, in the diplomatic correspondence, 
but Livingston's references to "the only person who was 
supposed to have influence with him" — Napoleon — leaves 



156 THE STORY OF THE 

no doubt as to who is meant, nor can there be any that he 
was active in the future negotiations, as an ardent friend 
of America. 

Again the colonization matter attracted attention, and 
on the 28th of November, Livingston wrote Jefferson, 
saying that he thought all Europe, except Russia, was 
ready to rise against the power of Napoleon, and that 
while the expedition was under orders to sail for Lou- 
isiana, it was deterred in anticipation of coming events. 
Writing Madison on the same day, he said: 'This Mis- 
sissippi business, though all of the officers are appointed, 
and the army is under orders, has received a check. It is 
obstructed for the moment." He had learned that a fur- 
ther complication regarding the Duchy of Parma had 
arisen, and, but four days later, he wrote Madison that, 
''The Parma trouble is settled, and the expedition will sail 
for Louisiana in about twenty days ; the appropriation for 
it has been increased to two and a half millions of francs, 
and the people there are to pay the expenses of govern- 
ment." His last letter of the year, that of December 22d, 
informed the Secretary of State that the expedition had 
not vet sailed. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 157 



CHAPTER XII. 

Negotiations Leading up to the Purchase of Louisi- 
ana — The Treaty of Parts — The Conventions. 

At the beginning of the year 1803, a crisis was at hand 
in the history of North America. It was the most critical 
period in the annals of the United States since the found- 
ing of the Government. Questions of mighty import 
were presenting themselves for solution. Was France to 
colonize Louisiana, occupy New Orleans, and control the 
navigation of the Mississippi ? Was Great Britain, in her 
impending war with France, to conquer the country west 
of that river, and thereby extend her possessions from the 
Lake of the Woods to the Gulf of Mexico? Was the 
United States to be confined to the east side of the Mis- 
sissippi, between the thirty- first parallel of north latitude 
— the northern boundary of Florida — and the Great 
Lakes? Or, was that republic to become the possessor of 
New Orleans, to control the commerce on the mighty 
river, and by securing the Louisiana Purchase, make pos- 
sible the future extension of its boundaries to the Pacific 
Ocean, so as to include the twenty trans-Mississippi 
States of to-day? American statesmen at home and 



158 THE STORY OF THE 

abroad saw the wonderful possibilities, acted wisely, and 
''l^nilded better than they knew." 

On the nth of January, Jefferson conferred upon Liv- 
ingston plenipotentiary powers to enter into a treaty or 
convention with Napoleon for ''securing our rights and 
interests in the river Mississippi." Similar increased 
powers were given Pinckney at Madrid that he might 
treat for the same interests if it be found that the cession 
to France had not been fully confirmed. Then after ex- 
pressing entire confidence in the ability of both these 
gentlemen, on the same day, Jefferson nominated James 
Monroe as Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraor- 
dinary, to proceed to Europe, there to negotiate jointly 
with either Livingston, or Pinckney, or both, in the mat- 
ters before them. On the next day his nomination was 
confirmed by the Senate by a strict party vote — fifteen to 
twelve. He was expected to be absent more than a year, 
and his salary was fixed at nine thousand dollars per an- 
num. On the 13th, Jefferson wrote him at his home in 
Virginia informing him of his appointment, and, he 
added : "The agitation of the public mind on the occasion 
of the late suspension of our right of deposit at New 
Orleans is extreme. In the western country it is natural 
and grounded on honest motives. '•' -^ * Something 
sensible has become necessary ; and, indeed, our object 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 159 

of purchasing- New Orleans and the Floridas is a measure " 
liable to assume so many shapes that no instructions can 
be squared to meet them. * ^ * On the events of 
this mission depend the future of this Republic." 

On the same day that Monroe's appointment was con- 
firmed, Congress made an appropriation of two millions 
of dollars *'to defray the expense which may be incurred 
in relation to the intercourse between the United States 
and foreign countries." ''We must have New Orleans," 
was the declaration of the day, and it was then heard on 
every hand — often in the halls of Congress. No doubt 
the money thus appropriated was intended to pay for the 
Island of Orleans. 

Meantime, Livingston was busy with American inter- 
ests in Paris, and on the loth of January, he informed 
the French ministry that Great Britain desired to gain 
control of the mouth of the Mississippi, and thereby es- 
tablish a southern connection with her Canadian pos- 
sessions by way of that river and the Great Lakes. To 
obtain this possession, she would find but little difficulty 
unless prevented by the United States ; for Louisiana, a 
new colony, would be imable to withstand the forces of 
Canada advancing on New Orleans. Then he submitted 
to Talleyrand an outline of a treaty, which he accom- 
panied by the remark that "Louisiana will never be worth 



160 THE STORY OF THE 

possessing by France without the Floridas." And, con- 
tinuing, he said : 

"First: Let France cede to the United States so much 
of Louisiana as Hes above the Arkansas River. This will 
place a barrier between the French possessions and Can- 
ada, which will prevent successful attack from that source 
before aid can arrive from France." 

''Second: Let France retain the country west of the 
Mississippi, and below the Arkansas River — a region 
capable of sustaining fifteen millions of people — and by 
this action she will place a barrier between the United 
States and Mexico — New Spain. Then if the former 
shall ever have the wild idea of carrying their arms into 
that country, she will be at hand to aid Spain, or against 
the attack of any other European power." 

''Third: Let France hold East Florida as far west as 
the Perdido River, and then cede West Florida and the 
Island of Orleans to the United States. This will give 
France the best lands and nearly all the settlements, to- 
gether with Fort St. Leon, on the west bank of the Mis- 
sissippi, eighteen miles below New Orleans, but because 
of a great bend in the river, nearly opposite that city, and 
which has an equally good harbor, is higher, healthier, 
more defensible, destined to be the chief seaport of Louisi- 
ana, and will become the capital, even though France re- 
tains New Orleans, which is a small town built of wood." 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 161 

"Such an arrangement alone can keep the whole of 
that vast region from falling into the hands of Great 
Britain, who, with her maritime power in the gulf, and a 
martial colony in Canada, will, with her fleets block up 
the seaports, and attack New Orleans, while an army of 
fifteen or twenty thousand men from the St. Lawrence 
can overrun the whole settled portions of Louisiana. 
Thus France, by holding on to Louisiana as it is, will, in 
the end, make Great Britain the master of the New 
World." 

Then he referred again to the mutual interests of 
France and the United States, and said that if the French 
authorities thought of these and of the means of protect- 
ing them, he would like to arrest the settlement of the 
boundary matter between the United States and Great 
Britain, then being adjusted by Rufus King, at London. 
To this he added : "Every reason of policy should now in- 
duce France either to relinquish her design of colonizing 
Louisiana altogether, or to cover her position by ceding 
New Orleans to the United States." 

On the i8th of January, Madison wrote Livingston 
saying that Monroe had been appointed, and would sail 
in a few days, to assist him in the negotiation. "He will," 
said he, "be the bearer of instructions under which you 
are to act. * * * 'pj^e object of them will be to pro- 



162 THE STORY OF THE 

^'cure the cession of New Orleans and the Floridas to the 
United States, and, consequently, the establishment of the 
/ ' Mississippi as the boundary between the United States 
and Louisiana. In order to draw the French Government 
into this measure, a sum of money will make part of your 
propositions, to which will be added such regulations of 
the commerce of that river and of others entering the 
Gulf of Mexico as ought to be satisfactory to France." 

On the 5th of February, Livingston informed Madison 
that: "The Louisiana armament has not yet sailed, it 
being frozen fast in the ice on the coast of France." This 
was the last mention he ever made of the scheme. In a 
letter written on the i8th to Madison, he informed him 
that he found another avenue to the First Consul t1ian 
through his Minister of Exterior Relations, and that he 
' had effectually done this. "I can," says he, "have a per- 
' sonal conference with him whenever I choose. * '•' ''' 
France is fully impressed with the nullity of her posses- 
sions in Louisiana without some port on the gulf." 

Nine days later he sent a communication to Napoleon, 
in which he pressed upon him the payment of the debts 
due to American citizens, saying that these debts ''against 
the Government of France are so well founded that no 
administration that ever prevailed in France has refused 
to recognize them." "At the same time, I must," said he. 




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LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 163 

"solicit some treaty explaining- the terms on which 
France has received Louisiana from Spain." This he 
urged more earnestly upon the French authorities than 
ever before because a communication just received from 
Madison informed him that the Spanish Intendant at 
New Orleans still kept that port closed against the de- 
posit of American merchandise. He further pressed upon 
Napoleon the thought that France could never derive any 
benefit from the occupation of New Orleans, and that he 
could not but express doubt of "any advantage to be 
derived to France from the retaining of that country 
[Louisiana] in its full extent. '^ ''^ '^^ I think it will 
be well for her to make such grants of it as will protect 
it against an enemy from Canada as well as from the sea." 
On the second of March, Madison delivered to Monroe 
"Letters of Credence" for himself and Livingston, by 
which they were authorized to treat with the Government 
of the French Republic "on the subject of the Mississippi 
and the territories to the eastward thereof, and without / 
the LTnitcd States." 'The object in view," continued Mad- 
ison, "is to procure by just and satisfactory arrangement 
a cession to the L^nited States of New Orleans and West 
and East Florida, or as much thereof as the actual pro- 
prietor can be prevailed on to part with." It must be 
kept in mind that France was engaged in a constant effort 



164 THE STORY OF THE 

to secure the Floridas from Spain, and Madison said fur- 
ther that: ''The French Republic is understood to have 
become the proprietor, by a cession from Spain, of New 
Orleans, if not of the Floridas." The chief object, how- 
ever, was to make the Mississippi, down to its mouth, 
the boundary between the United States and Louisiana. 
The unstability of the peace of Furope, the hostile atti- 
tude of Great Britain, and the languishing state of the 
French finances were all favorable to American interests. 
So thought Madison. But he l>elievcd that it was the in- 
tention of Napoleon to occupy New Orleans, and by thus 
gaining control of the Mississippi, hold the key to the 
commerce of its great valley, and thus command the re- 
spect and influence of the United States in his war with 
Great Britain, then near at hand. In this way, he would, 
at least, make the American Republic a neutral power. 

In addition to the letters, Madison also delivered to 
Monroe the form of a treaty — doubtless the work of Jef- 
ferson — which specified the objects desired. It was ar- 
ranged in a series of articles in the first of which was the 
provision that France should cede to the United States 
forever, her territory east of the Mississippi whatever it 
might be, comprehending New Orleans and the islands 
lying north of the channel known as the South Pass at 
the mouth of the Mississippi, France retaining to herself ' 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 165 

/^/all the territory on the west side of that river. Thus 
supplied with instructions for himself and Livingston, 
Monroe sailed from New York for Havre on the 7th of 
March, and reached Paris on the 12th of April after a 
stormy voyage of thirty-six days. 

Talleyrand now aided Livingston to reach the ear of 
the First Consul, a thing he had not previously done. 
General Bernadotte and Marbois favored the cession of 
the territory on the east side of the Mississippi, as did 
other prominent men, among them Le Brun, who was in- 
timate with Barbois on account of the intermarriage of 
their children. On the nth of March, Livingston wrote 
Madison saying that French stocks were selling at sixty- 
one per cent, "a decline of four per cent in the last few 
days." In his letter of the next day, he said with respect 
to the negotiations for Louisiana: 'T think nothing will 
be effected here. I have done everything I can, through 
the Spanish Embassador here, to obstruct the bargain 
between France and Spain for the Floridas, and I have 
good hope that it will not be soon concluded." It was at 
this time the policy of the American authorities to dis- 
courage the cession of the Floridas to France, for if that 
country insisted on holding New Orleans, then might the 
United States secure, by treaty with Spain, a part at least 
of West Florida, and thus obtain by one or more of its 
rivers, an outlet to the gulf. 



166 THE STORY OF THE 

But now the French ministry made a proposition to 
Livingston. It was to make New Orleans a free port of 
entry to the vessels of three nations — France, Spain and 
the United States — to all incoming vessels — that is on 
imports — provided the United States Government would 
agree to admit free the merchandise of France and Spain 
to the upper Mississippi, and the valleys of the Ohio and 
the Missouri. This Livingston could not consider, first 
because of its terms, and secondlv for want of authoritv. 

In a lengthy letter to Talleyrand, written on the i6th of 
March, Livingston spoke of Napoleon as "an enlightened 
statesman who had advanced his country to the highest 
pinnacle of military glory and national prosperity." But 
he declared that "Louisiana is, and ever must be, from 
physical causes, a miserable country in the hands of any 
European power. Nor can France on any principle of 
sound policy dictate any change in the circumstances of 
New Orleans that shall exclude the citizens of the United 
States from the right of deposit to which alone they must 
be indebted for their prosperity. Be assured, sir," he 
continued, "that even were it possible that the government 
of the L^nited States could be insensible to these suffer- 
ings, they would find it as easy to prevent the Mississippi 
River from rolling its waters into the ocean, as to control 
the impulse of the people to do themselves justice. * '^ 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 167 

wSir, I will venture to say that were a fleet to shut up the 
mouths of the Chesapeake, Delaware and Hudson, it 
v.ould create less sensation in the United States than the 
denial of the right of deposit at New Orleans has done. 
.!: ^ * ^YXiQ people of the Western Country were emi- 
grants from the different States in which they left con- 
nections deeply interested in their prosperity." 

Meantime, war clouds were rising over Europe. Rufus 
King writing Madison from London under date of the 
17th of March said: ''We are all in a bustle, not knowing 
whether we are to have war or peace." Soon, however, 
this was to be determined, for all Europe was to be con- 
vulsed once more. Napoleon realized that he was on the 
eve of a war with Great Britain. He had himself vio- 
lated the terms of the Peace of Amiens, and Britain was \ 
never to make truce with him again. He well knew, too, 
that the Louisiana Purchase was the most defenseless of 
his possessions; that as such it would be the first the 
British would strike, and that it must fall into their 
hands. 

This knowledge alone induced him to make the sale. 
He judged wisely that he would better sell it for as much 
as he could get, for he was to lose it entirely if he at- 
tempted to retain it. Pie was not so weak in military 
capacity as to suppose for a moment that he could hold a 



168 THE STORY OF THE 

level and comparatively unfortified mud bank, inhabited 
only by a few thousand Creoles, and a vast wilderness in- 
land occupied by savages, with the Atlantic Ocean be- 
tween it and France, against the fighting men of five mil- 
lions of people ; and that, too, with Great Britain joyfully 
and eagerly ready to anticipate any assistance he could 
send, so that not a regiment could reach Louisiana with- 
out, in part at least, owing it to favoring incidents. He 
now saw that his colonization scheme was at an end ; that 
this new domain was worthless to France, and must soon 
pass from its grasp. It was, therefore, both to his ad- 
vantage and credit to part with it for the best equivalent 
he could obtain, before the outbreak of another war. The 
"first cannon fired in Europe," of which Jefferson had 
spoken nearly a year before, was about to roar the knell 
of the Peace of Amiens, and it was now for Bonaparte to 
say whether it should be the ''signal," also, for holding 
the two continents of America in ''sequestration" for the 
common purposes of the "united British and American 
nations." 

On Saturday, April 9th, Marbois went to the Palace of 
St. Cloud,* to attend a meeting of the Ministry. Napo- 



*The Palace of St. Cloud was situated at the village of that name, on the 
left bank of the Seine River, seven miles west of the center of Paris. It was 
there that the decision to sell lyOuisiana was made. It continued to be a royal 
residence until 1870, when it was burned by the Prussian army. 






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LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 169 

leon asked, "What news from England?" Marbois men- 
tioned the statement made in a London newspaper that an 
army would be raised to "occupy Louisiana." There 
was a silence and then Marbois said : "I am sorry that any 
differences exist between the United States and France." 
Napoleon, hesitating for a time, replied : "Well, you have 
charge of the Treasury. Let them give you a hundred 
millions of francs ; pay the debts due their own citizens 
from France, and take the whole country." Marbois re- 
phed, "The thing is impossible. The Americans have not 
the means of raising that amount of money." "They 
might borrow it," replied Napoleon, and thus ended the 
conversation for the time. 

Then each day made history. On the next, April 
loth, Easter Sunday, there was another remarkable meet- 
ing at St. Cloud. There sat Napoleon, the greatest war- 
rior of all time. With him were Marbois and General 
Berthier — the latter the Minister of War. Events of 
world-wide importance were discussed, and then the con- 
versation again turned upon Louisiana. Napoleon arose, 
and with all the earnestness of a conqueror said : 

"I am fully sensible of the value of Louisiana, and it 
was my desire to repair the error of the French diplo- 
matists who abandoned it in 1762. I have scarcely re- 
ceived it before I run the risk of losing it ; but if I am 



170 THE STORY OF THE 

obliged to give it up, it shall hereafter cost more to those 
who force me to part with it, than those to whom I yield 
it. The English have despoiled France of all her north- 
ern possessions in America, and now they covet those of 
the south. I am determined that they shall not have the 
Mississippi. Although Louisiana is but a trifle compared 
to her vast possessions in other parts of the globe, yet, 
judging from the vexation they have manifested in seeing 
it returned to the power of France, I am certain that their 
first object will be to gain possession of it. They will 
probably commence the war in that quarter. They have 
tvventy vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, and our affairs in 
St. Domingo are daily getting worse since the death of 
Le Clerc. The conquest of Louisiana might be easily 
made, and I have not a moment to lose in putting it out 
of their reach. I am not sure but what they have already 
begun an attack upon it. Such a measure would be in 
accordance with their habits, and, in their place, I should 
not wait. I am inclined, in order to deprive them of all 
prospect of ever possessing it, to cede it to the United 
States. Indeed, I can hardly say that I shall cede it, for 
1 do not yet possess it, and if I wait but a short time, my 
enemies may leave me nothing but an empty title to grant 
to the Republic I wish to conciliate. They only ask for 
one city of Louisiana, but I consider the whole country 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 171 

lost, and I believe that in the hands of this rising power 
it will be more useful to the political and even the com- 
mercial interests of France, than if I should attempt to 
retain it. Let me have both your opinions on the subject." 

They discussed the measure without decision. Marbois 
greatly favored the sale ; Berthier as earnestly opposed it. 
The next day Napoleon said to Marbois, ''The season for 
deliberation is over. I have determined to renounce 
Louisiana. I shall not only give up New Orleans, but the 
whole country without reservation. * * "^ I do not 
undervalue Louisiana. * =i< * I regret parting with 
it, but I am convinced that it would be folly to persist in 
trying to keep it. I commission you, therefore, to nego- 
tiate this affair with the envoys of the United States. ^ 
* '1= Were I to regulate my demands by the importance 
of this territory to the LTnited States, they would be un- 
bounded ; but, being obliged to part with it, I shall be 
moderate in my terms. Still, remember, I must have 
sixty millions of francs for it, and I will not consent to 
take less." 

Livingston knew nothing of what had transpired at St. 
Cloud, and on the nth he wrote Madison that he had 
done all he could in the Louisiana matter, and that he had 
made a favorable impression on all unless it was the First 
Consul, and 'T have reason," said he, "to think that he 



172 THE STORY OF THE 

begins to waver. I assured him that Great Britain would 
see to it that Spain did not cede the Floridas to France, 
or, if she did, Britain would seize them as soon as the 
transfer was made, and that without the Floridas, Louisi- 
ana would be indefensible, as it possessed not one port on 
the Gulf, even for frigates." He was greatly surprised 
when, later in the day, Talleyrand asked him whether "he 
zvanted to have the zvhole of Louisiana f" He replied in 
the negative, saying, "We want only to secure New Or- 
leans, and the Floridas, if ceded by Spain, but it should 
be the policy of France to give us the country above the 
Arkansas River, in order to place a barrier between her 
and Canada." To this Talleyrand replied that if they 
ceded New Orleans, the rest would be of very little value, 
and he desired to know what the United States would 
give for the whole. Livingston answered that he had not 
thought of that. 'Then," said Talleyrand, "think of the 
matter, and let me know to-morrow." Livingston then 
told him that Monroe would arrive the next day, when he 
would introduce him, but he was greatly delighted, for 
he now thought the United States might get Louisiana, 
and be enabled to exchange it with Spain for the Floridas. 
especially as the former adjoined the Spanish territory of 
New Spain — Mexico. ''But," he added, "we will not dis- 
pose of the skin till we have killed the bear." 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 173 

The next day — April 12th — while Livingston was at 
dinner, he saw Marbois walking in the garden, and ex- 
cusing himself, he went to him and invited him to enter. 
I'his Marbois declined to do, saying that inasmuch as 
there \\'as company in the house, and he desired a conver- 
sation, they would better meet in his office at the Treasury 
Department. To this Livingston assented, and joined 
him in the afternoon. Marbois hastened to inform him of 
what Napoleon had said at St. Cloud about the payment 
of a hundred millions of francs, and taking the whole 
country, and then he asked, "Do you want to buy the 
zvhole of Louisiana f' Livingston told him in answer to 
this that he desired only to make the Mississippi the 
boundary between the LTnited States and Louisiana ; that 
the Americans had no disposition to extend across that 
river, and that, of course, they would not give any great 
sum for its purchase, and, further, that the sum men- 
tioned — that of a hundred millions of francs — was an ex- 
orbitant one, and if they thought to consider the pur- 
chase, it would only be when the sum was reduced to 
reasonable limits. Marbois then asked that Livingston 
should name a price. This, he said, he had no authority to 
do, and, in turn, insisted that Marbois should mention a 
reasonable sum. To this he replied that if the Americans 
would name sixty millions of francs, and take upon them- 



174 THE STORY OF THE 

selves the pax'iiient of debts due their own citizens from 
France, he would see how far this would be accepted. 
Livingston replied that it was vain to ask anything that 
was so greatly beyond their means. Marbois promised to 
submit the matter to Napoleon again. "But," he added, 
"vou know the temper of the youthful conqueror ; every- 
thing he does is rapid as lightning; we have only to 
speak to him as an opportunity presents itself. Try then 
if you cannot come to my mark. Consider the extent of 
that country ; the exclusive navigation of the Mississippi ; 
and the importance of having no neighbors to dispute 
with you, no wars to dread." To this Livingston replied 
that he had thought of all these things as important con- 
siderations, but there was a point beyond which he could 
not go. He then asked whether, in case the United States 
purchased Louisiana from France, that government 
would agree never to possess the Floridas. '^'France will 
agree to go thus far," replied Marbois. Livingston then 
promised that he would consult Monroe, and further de- 
sired to say that if a negotiation was to be entered into, 
he hoped that Napoleon would depute some one having 
more leisure to transact the business than the Minister of 
Exterior Relations. Marbois said that he thought the 
management of it would be put in his own hands. When 
they parted it was far into the night, and when Livingston 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 175 

left the Treasury building-, the clocks in the neio-hboring- 
steeples of a great cit}^ were striking the midnight hour. 
He walked to his home in silence, for strange emotions 
filled his mind. He and Monroe were there to negotiate 
for a city, and now they were offered an empire. On 
arriving at his home, he wrote Madison a long letter, in 
which he said: "The field offered us is infinitely larger 
than our instructions contemplate. But the negotiation ! 
Shall we ever go to the sum proposed by Marbois? Then 
I try to persuade myself that the whole sum may be raised 
by the sale of the territory west of the Mississippi, with 
the right of sovereignty, to some power in Europe whose 
vicinity we should not fear." He finished this letter as 
the clock was striking the morning hour of three— April 
13th— the closing sentence being: 'We shall do all 7i'c 
can to cheapen the purchase, but my sentiment is that we n 
shall buy." 

Monroe was introduced to Talleyrand on the 14th— two 
days after his arrival— and that evening he and Living- 
ston agreed to oft'er fifty millions of francs to France for 
Louisiana, including the debts due American citizens from 
France, and on the next day Livingston informed Marbois 
of this. That official assured him that it would not be ac- 
cepted, and that, perhaps, the whole business would be de- 
feated thereby. He again urged Livingston to increase the 



176 THE STORY OF THE 

amount of their offer, and agreed, if it was so desired, to 
go out to St. Cloud that very day, and let him know the 
result of the interview with the First Consul. This he 
did, notwithstanding the offer was not increased. The 
day following he told Livingston that Napoleon had 
spoken of the proposition very coolly, but that he should 
go to St. Cloud the next day, and it might be possible that 
the subject would be touched upon again. Livingston re- 
plied that he and Monroe could not see their way to offer 
more than fifty millions of francs. Marbois said that 
Napoleon had given the Kingdom of Etruria — the Grand 
Duchy of Tuscany — with its large revenues for Louisiana 
and Parma, and that he likely placed an estimate beyond 
its real value upon Louisiana. "Thus we stand at pres- 
ent," writes Livingston to Madison, ''resolving to rest a 
few days on our oars." 

But there was little time to rest. On the 15th — three 
days after his arrival — Monroe wrote Madison saying: 
"It is said this government has resolved to offer us the 
whole of Louisiana. This was intimated to Mr. Living- 
ston the day after my arrival, and to me since, through 
another channel." 

On the iSth, he attended a state dinner at the house 
of Talleyrand, and the next day wrote Madison informing 
him of his reception, and saying, 'T dined yesterday with 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 177 

the Minister of Exterior Relations in company with my 
colleague, Mr. Marbois and others. Aiier dinner, Mr. 
Marbois and myself had much conversation on the sub- 
ject of my mission, in which he declared with frankness 
an earnest desire to adjust every possible cause of vari- 
ance with us. He assured me that the First Consul had 
decided to offer the whole of Louisiana for one hundred 
millions of francs, and our assumption of the debts due 
our citizens from France. * * ^ That he believed he 
might be persuaded to accept sixty millions of francs, and 
the payment of the debts as above, but not less, and he was 
fearful from the peremptory tone of the First Consul's 
character that if we did not meet him on the ground pro- 
posed, he might dismiss the subject from his mind, and 
with difficulty be brought to take it up again." 

The time had arrived for action, and there could be no 
longer delay. They now knew that they must treat for 
the whole of Louisiana or abandon the hope of acquiring 
any part of it, for Marbois' first instructions were *'to sell 
the whole country." They knew, too, that if they got it 
they must pay sixty millions of francs, and assume the 
payment of debts due American citizens from the French 
Republic. They knew, also, that this was not contem- 
plated by their appointment or instructions, but after 
earnest and careful consideration, they decided to enter 



178 THE STORY OF THE 

into a treaty for the whole of the Louisiana Purchase. 
This they made known to Marbois, and the arrangement 
and agreement upon terms began on the 20th, and con- 
tinued for ten days, when they were concluded — Satur- 
day, the 30th of x\pril, 1803. Three documents were pre- 
pared — one treaty and two conventions. The first of 
these was entitled the — 

TREATY FOR THE CESSION OF LOUISIANA TO THE UNITED 

STATES. 

It was Concluded, April 30, 1803; Ratified by Napoleon, May 10, 

1803; Ratified by the Senate of the United States, October 

20, 1803; Ratifications Exchanged, October 21, 

1803; Proclaimed, October 21, 1803. 

The treaty contained an extended introduction in which 
it was declared that 'The President of the United States 
of America and the First Consul of the French Republic 
desiring to remove all cause of misunderstanding * 
''' '^ and willing to strengthen the union of friendship 
rK ijc i|j between the two nations, have named their 
plenipotentiaries." 

There were ten articles : 

In Article I. it was set forth that: 'Whereas, in pur- 
suance of the Treaty — St. Ildefonso — particularly the 
third article thereof, the h'rench Republic has an incon- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 179 

testable title to the domain and the possession of the said 
territory [Louisiana], the First Consul of the French Re- 
public desiring to give to the United States a strong proof 
of friendship, doth hereby cede to the United States, in 
the name of the French Republic forever, and in full sov- 
ereignty, all of its rights and appurtenances, as fully and 
in the same manner as they might have been acquired 
by the French Republic in virtue of the above-mentioned 
treaty concluded with his Catholic Majesty." 

In Article II. it was provided that in this cession "are 
included the adjacent islands belonging to Louisiana; all 
public lots and squares, vacant lands, and all public build- 
ings, fortifications, and other edifices which are not pri- 
vate property. The archives, papers, and documents rela- 
tive to the dominion and sovereignty of Louisiana and its 
dependencies will be left in the possession of the Com- 
missioners of the United States." 

In Article III. it was declared that *'all citizens of the 
ceded territory shall be incorporated in the union of the 
United States and admitted as soon as possible, according 
to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoy- 
ment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of 
citizens of the United States." 

In Article IV. it was provided that there should be sent 
by the Government of France a Commissary to Louisiana, 



180 THE STORY OF THE 

to the end that he do every act necessary, and as well to 
receive from the officers of the King of Spain the said 
country and its dependencies, in the name of the French 
Republic, if it has not been done already, so as to transmit 
it in the name of the French Republic to the Commis- 
sioners of the United States. 

Further details were contained in the additional ar- 
ticles, one of which was that the vessels and merchandise 
of France and Spain were to be admitted into all the ports 
of Louisiana free for twelve years, and after that, the 
ships and merchandise of France were to be admitted on 
the 'same footing as those of the most favored country." 

The treaty was signed by Robert R. Livingston, James 
Monroe and Barbe Marbois, in the order named. When 
the transaction was completed, Marbois said to the Amer- 
ican Commissioners. "You have made a noble bargain 
for yourselves, and I suppose you will make the most of 
it." Then Livingston replied by saying: 'T consider that 
from this day the United States takes rank with the 
Powers of Europe, and now she has entirely escaped from 
the power of England." When Napoleon was told that 
the Treaty had been signed, he remarked that ''By this 
cession of territory I have secured the power of the Uni- 
ted States, and given to England a maritime rival who, 
at some future time, will humble her pride." How nearly 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 181 

correct were the remarks of all three, let the world answer 
to-day. By this treaty, Louisiana, which had been given 
by France to Spain forty years before, had now become 
the property of the United States, and in better hands, it 
was at a later period to astonish the world by its growth 
and prosperity. 

FIRST CONVENTION. 

Convention for Payment of Sixty Millions of Francs by the 

United States. 

(Negotiation, Ratification, Proclamation and Date, Same as 

Those of Treaty.) 

No reference whatever was made in the Treaty to a 
consideration or compensation to France for the cession 
of the Louisiana Purchase, but this was provided for in 
the First Convention. In Article L, it was declared that 
the United States engaged to pay to the French Govern- 
ment the sum of sixty millions of francs independent of 
the amount of debts due by France to American citizens 
and assumed by the United States. 

In Article II. it was provided that "for the payment of 
the sum of sixty millions of francs, the United States 
shall create a stock of eleven millions two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, bearing interest of six per cent 
per annum, w^hich interest shall be payable half yearly in 



182 THE STORY OF THE 

London, Amsterdam and Paris, amounting by the half 
year to three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hun- 
dred dollars, according to the proportions which shall be 
determined by the French Government, to be paid at 
either place, the principal of the said stock to be disbursed 
at the treasury of the United States in annual payments 
of not less than three millions of dollars each, of which 
the first payment shall commence fifteen years after the 
date of the exchange of ratifications. It was further pro- 
vided that this stock should be transferred to the Govern- 
ment of France, or to such person or persons as shall be 
authorized to receive it, within three months, at most, 
after the exchange of the ratification of this Convention, 
and after Louisiana shall be taken possession of, in the 
name of the Government of the United States." 

It was further agreed that if "the French Government 
should be desirous of disposing of the said stock, to re- 
ceive the capital money in Europe at shorter terms, that 
its measures for that purpose shall be taken so as to favor, 
in the fullest degree possible, the credit of the United 
States, and to raise to the highest price the said stock." 
The meaning of this was to do it on the best terms for the 
protection of the credit of the United States. 

Again, it was further agreed that *'the value of the dol- 
lar of the United States in all these negotiations shall be 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 183 

fixed at 5.3333 francs, or, five francs eight sous ternois, 
French currency." 

SECOND CONVENTION. 

C onvcntion for tJie Payment of Sums Due by France to Citizens 
of the United States. 

(Negotiation, Ratification, Proclamaition and Date, Same as 

Those of Treaty.) 

In connection with the Second Convention it was de- 
clared that the Treaty of this date terminated all differ- 
ences relative to Louisiana, and established on a sound 
foundation the friendship which unites the two nations ; 
that both were desirous, in compliance with the second 
and fifth articles of the treaty of September 30, 1800, as 
to *'the debts contracted by one of the two nations with 
the individuals of the other,'' to secure the payment of the 
sums due by France to the citizens of the United States. 

In Ariicle I. it was declared that: ''The debts due by 
France to citizens of the United States, contracted before 
the 30th of September, 1800 — the ninth year of the 
French Republic — shall be paid according to the follow- 
ing regulations, with interest at six per cent, to com- 
mence from the period when the accounts and vouchers 
are presented to the French Government." 

In Article II. it was provided that ''the amount of 
said debts shall not exceed twenty millions of francs." At 



184 THE STORY OF THE 

the time this convention was negotiated, the estimated 
amount of these debts was nineteen milHon eight hundred 
and eighty-nine thousand three hundred and three francs, 
but some of the items were marked "susceptible of con- 
siderable reduction," and such they were found to be. 

In Article III. it was provided that "The principal and 
interest of the said debts shall be discharged by the Uni- 
ted States by orders drawn by their minister plenipoten- 
tiary on their Treasury ;" these were to be payable sixty 
days after the exchange of ratifications of the Treaty and 
Conventions, and "after possession shall be given of 
Louisiana by the Commissioner of France to those of the 
United States." 

Succeeding articles contained other details, among 
them the provision that the American Minister should 
designate three persons to fully investigate all claims pre- 
sented for payment, and when found accurate, the cred- 
itor was to receive an order on the Treasury of the United 
States for the amount thus ascertained to be due him. 

Thus the Louisiana Purchase was completed, but not a 
day too soon. On the 3d of May — but three days after 
the signing of the Treaty — Rufus King, in London, wrote 
Livingston and Monroe to inform them that, in case of a 
war with France, "Great Britain intended to send an 
arrriy to occupy New Orleans." The same day they re- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 185 

plied to this letter by saying: "We have the honor to in- 
form you that by a treaty concluded April 30, 1803, be- 
tween the Minister of the French Government and our- 
selves, the United States obtained full right to sovereignty 
in and over New Orleans and the whole of Louisiana as 
Spain possessed it." On the 15th, King informed Lord 
Hawkesbury that the United States had acquired all of 
Louisiana, "as possessed by Spain," and, on the 19th, 
Hawkesbury acknowledged the receipt of King's letter, 
and stated that he had laid it before King George IIL, 
"who had directed him to express to the American Min- 
ister the pleasure he had received from the information it 
contained." War between France and England immedi- 
ately ensued, but no British army was sent to New Or- 
leans. 

On the 13th of May, Livingston and Monroe wrote a 
joint letter to Madison explaining their action. They 
said: "An acquisition of so great an extent was, we well 
know, not contemplated by our appointment." They had 
learned that Napoleon had decided to offer to the United 
States, by sale, the whole of Louisiana, and not 
a part of it. They had to decide as a pre- 
vious question, whether they would treat for the whole or 
jeopardize, if not abandon, the hope of acquiring any 
part; they, therefore, after mature deliberation, con- 



186 THE STORY OF THE 

eluded to treat for it all. They said, in justification of 
their action, that ''We are persuaded that the circum- 
stances and considerations which induced us to make it, 
will justify us in the measure of our Government and our 
country." On the 29th of July ensuing, Madison replied 
to this letter, and said that "while the treaty for the 
whole of Louisiana" was not embraced in their powers, 
yet he was ''charged by the President to express his entire 
approbation in their so doing." A grateful nation and a 
hundred millions of people applaud their action a hundred 
years thereafter. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 187 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Spain Opposes the Cession — Ratification of the 

Treaty and Conventions — Legislation 

BY Congress Relating to the 

Louisiana Purchase. 

On the 13th of May, 1803, M. Disieux left Paris witb. 
a copy of the treaty and of each of the conventions whicli 
had been ratified by Napoleon four days before, and pro- 
ceeded by way of Bordeaux to the United States. A 
Mr. Hughes bore copies by way of London, and still 
others were sent by Amsterdam. The first copies reacherl 
Washington City on the 14th of July ensuing. Now 
there was to be no more delay. On the 25th of June, 
while the treaty was in transit on the ocean, Livingston 
wrote Madison and said : 'T hope in God nothing may 
occur to prevent the ratification and that, without the 
altering of a single syllable of the terms, it will be done. 
France is sick of the bargain and Spain is much dissatis- 
fied." Jeflferson made haste, and on the i6th of July — 
but two days after the receipt of the treaty — issued a 
proclamation convening Congress in extra session to meet 
on the 17th of the ensuing October. 



188 THE STORY OF THE 

But at this time an unexpected complication arose. 
Early in the year Charles Pinckney, at Madrid, was en- 
gaged in an effort to secure a cession of the Floridas 
from Spain to the United States, now that they were 
known not to be included in the transfer of Louisiana to 
France. In the progress of these negotiations, Don 
Pedro Cevallos, the Spanish Secretary of State, wrote 
him from Aranjuez, on the 4th of May following, saying 
that his "King would not further dispossess himself of 
any part of his kingdom." Then he added : "By the 
retrocession made to France of Louisiana, this Power 
acquires the said province with the limits it had, and 
* * * the United States can address themselves to the 
French Government to negotiate the acquisition of terri- 
tory which may suit their interest." Here was a positive 
declaration that France was not only the owner of the 
Louisiana Purchase, but that if the United States desired 
to possess it, negotiations must be conducted with that 
country. But, let us imagine the surprise of Secretary 
Madison when he received a letter from M. de Casa 
Yrujo, the vSpanish Minister to the United States, written 
at Philadelphia, September 4, in which he said that his 
King was surprised to learn that France had sold 
Louisiana to the United States, as that province had been 
ceded to France with understandings of the most solid 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 189 

engagements never to alienate the said province. To con- 
vince the American authorities of the truth of his state- 
ment, he quoted a paragraph from an agreement bearing 
date July 22, 1802, between M. de St. Cyr, the Ambassa- 
dor of the French Republic at Madrid, and the Spanish 
Secretary of State. From this it appeared conclusive 
that such an understanding had been agreed upon be- 
tween the representatives of the two nations, for, in the 
paragraph referred to, after reciting the wish of the 
Spanish Government in the matter, St. Cyr said : 'T am 
authorized to declare to you in the name of the First 
Consul, that France w^ill never alienate it." Thus it was 
made known to the President that the sale of Louisiana 
was made in direct violation of an obligation on the part 
of France to Spain. Again, on the 27th of the same 
month, the Spanish Minister, writing this time from the 
* Vicinity of Philadelphia'' on the same subject, made the 
further statement that France had not complied with the 
requirements of the treaty of St. Ildefonso regarding the 
Duke of Parma in this, that she was to have him recog- 
nized as the King of Etruria by the powers of Europe, and 
that the courts of London and St. Petersburg had not 
done this, and that, therefore, the sale of Louisiana was 
void because of a failure on the part of France to comply 
in this particular with the terms of the treaty. 



190 THE STORY OF THE 

To these letters Madison replied on the 4th of October, 
1803, saying that he little expected objections to the 
cession on the part of Spain when in the preceding month 
of May her Secretary of State had directed the United 
States to negotiate with France for additional territory. 
This he quoted in full from Cevallos' letter to Pinckney, 
and then remarked that: ''Here is an explicit and posi- 
tive recognition of the right of the United States and 
France to enter into the transaction which has taken 
place." 

Again Casa Yrujo wrote, under date of October 12th, 
this time from Baltimore, and declared that "According 
to existing circumstances the French Government had 
no right to sell Louisiana nor the United States any 
right to buy it." This was the last correspondence touch- 
ing this subject this year.* 

On the 14th of October Louis Andre Pichon, the 
Minister of the French Republic to the United States, and 



*On the 10th of February, 1804, Don Pedro Cevallos. Spanish Minister of 
State, addressed a note dated at Pardo, to Charles Pinckney at Madrid, and 
said: "His Majesty has thought fit to renounce his opposition to the aliena- 
tion of I,ouisiana made by France, notwithstanding: the solid reasons on 
which it was founded; thereby giving a new proof of his benevolence and 
friendship toward the United States." This was officially announced to the 
American authorities by Casa Yrujo, who wrote Madison from Philadelphia, 
under date of May 15, 1804, and said: "The explanations which the govern- 
ment of France has given to his Catholic Majesty concerning the sale of 
Louisiana to the United States, and the amicable disposition on the part of 
the King, my master, towards those states, have determined him to abandon 
the opposition which, at a prior period and with the most substantial motives, 
he had maintained against that transfer." 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 191 

then residing at Georgetown in the District of Columbia, 
addressed a letter to Madison, setting forth that by the 
treaty of Madrid, March 22, 1801, it was shown that 
France had complied with the terms relating to the Duke 
of Parma, and that Spain had ordered the delivery of 
Louisiana to France ; that a circular had been forwarded 
to the Captain-General of Louisiana to surrender the 
same, and that the Marquis Casa Calvo had been sent 
to Louisiana to superintend its execution. He then 
asserted the right of France to make the cession, and 
declared that Spain knew of the negotiations at Paris for 
a whole year, and that she had never made any protest. 
He hoped, therefore, that the United States would, with- 
out further delay, proceed to accept the cession from the 
commissioner appointed by Napoleon to transfer the same. 
Meantime, Monroe had passed over from Paris to Lon- 
don and there Madison wrote him on the 24th of October, 
and enclosed copies of the letters from the Spanish 
Minister and also one of that received from Pichon. He 
stated that the treaty for Louisiana had been ratified in 
form, and was then before Congress for legislative pro- 
visions necessary to carry it into force. "It remains," 
said he, "to be seen how far Spain will persist in her 
remonstrances and how far she will add to these, resist- 
ance by force." Should the latter course be taken, it 



192 THE STORY OF THE 

can lead to nothing but a substitution of a forcible for a 
peaceable possession. Having now a clear and honest 
title, acquired in a mode pointed out by Spain herself, it 
will, without doubt, be ratified with a decision becoming 
our national character and required by the importance 
of the object." 

In August, Jefferson made a journey to the northward, 
and on the 12th wrote United States Senator John 
Breckenridge, of Kentucky, and said: ''Objections are 
raised to the eastward against the vast extent of our 
boundaries, and propositions are being made to exchange 
Louisiana, or a part of it, for the Floridas. But, as I 
have said, we shall get the Floridas without, and I would 
not give an inch of the waters of the Mississippi to any 
nation, because I see in a light very important to our 
peace the exclusive right to its navigation, and the admis- 
sion of no nation into it, but as into the Potomac or the 
Delaware, with our consent and under our police." 
Continuing, he said: ''The inhabited part of Louisiana 
from Point Coupee to the sea will, of course, be imme- 
diately a territorial government and soon a State. But 
above that, the best use we can make of the country for 
some time will be to give establishments in it to the In- 
dians on the east side of the Mississippi in exchange for 
their present country, and open land offices in the last, 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 193 

and thus make the acquisition the means of filHng- up on 
the eastern side instead of drawing off its population. 
When we shall be full on this side, we may lay off a range 
of States on the western bank from the head to the 
south, and so, range after range, advancing compactly as 
we multiply." Then he hoped that Congress would 
ratify the Treaty and Conventions and pay for Louisiana, 
and thus ''secure a good which would otherwise probably 
never be again within their power." He then thought the 
Constitution should be amended, for it, said he, "has 
made no provision for the holding of foreign territory 
and still less for incorporating foreign nations into our 
Union. The Executive, in seizing the fugitive occur- 
rence, which so much advances the good of our country, 
has done an act beyond the Constitution. * * ^' Con- 
gress must ratify and pay for it, and throw themselves on 
their country for doing for them, unauthorized, what we 
know they would have done for themselves, had they been 
in a situation to do it. '" * -^ I pretend to no right to 
bind you. You may disavow me, and I must get out of 
the scrape as I can. But we will not be disavowed by 
the nation and their act of indemnity will confirm and not 
weaken the Constitution, by more strongly marking out 
its lines." 

Congress assenfJDled on the 17th of October in compli- 
ance with the call, and Jefferson in his annual message 



194 THE STORY OP TIIR 

said : "In calling you together, fellow citizens, at an earlier 
date than was contemplated by the last session of Con- 
gress, I have not been insensible to the personal inconven- 
iences necessarily resulting from an unexpected change in 
your arrangements ; but matters of great public concern- 
ment have rendered this call necessary, and the interest you 
feel in these will supersede in your minds, all private con- 
siderations. Congress witnessed, at its last session, the 
extraordinary agitation produced in the public mind by 
the suspension of our right of deposit at the port of New 
Orleans, no assignment of another place having been 
made according to treaty. ''' -'' "^ The western country 
remained under foreign power. '^ '•' * Propositions 
were made on fair conditions for obtaining the sover- 
eignty of New Orleans. This was done because the 
appropriation of two millions of dollars by the last Con- 
gress was considered as conveying the sanction of Con- 
gress to the acquisition proposed. The enlightened Gov- 
ernment of France saw, with a just discernment, the 
importance to both nations of such arrangement as would 
best and permanently promote the peace, friendship and 
interest of both, and the property and sovereignty of all 
Louisiana wdiich had been restored to that nation have 
been, on certain conditions, transferred to the United 
States by instruments bearing date the 30th of April last." 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 195 

He then enumerated some of the advantages to accrue 
from this, among them being "the sovereignty of the 
Mississippi ; the uncontrolled navigation of western 
rivers ; an independent outlet for the produce of the 
western States ; freedom from collision with other 
'Powers ; and the fertility of the country, its climate and 
extent, which promise, in due season, important aids to 
the Treasury, ample provision for our posterity, and a 
wide spread for the blessings of freedom and equal laws." 
''The immediate occupation and temporary government 
of the country with all things else that pertain to it, are 
matters that engage the attention of Congress." 

It was the first session of the Eighth Congress. In the 
Senate there were thirty-four members, of whom nine 
were Federalists. These were Jonathan Dayton, of New 
Jersey; Simeon Olcott and William Plummer, of New 
Hampshire ; Timothy Pickering and John O. Adams, of 
Massachusetts ; James Hillhouse and Uriah Tracy, of 
Connecticut ; and William H. Wells and Samuel White, 
of Delaware. In the House of Representatives there 
were more than a hundred members, of whom nearly 
forty were Federalists. Soon it was discovered that 
these iui both houses of Congress were almost solidly 
united in opposition to the purchase of Louisiana, and 
ready, therefore, to oppose all legislation regarding it. 



196 THE STORY OF THE 

Jefferson sent the Treaty and Conventions to the Senate 
where, after three days of animated discussion, they were 
ratified, every Federalist in that body voting against this 
except Dayton. John Q. Adams did not arrive until 
the next day, but had he been present he would have 
voted for ratification. 

Now that the Treaty and Conventions were ratified, the 
necessary legislation to put their provisions into force 
must be enacted. This included three important enact- 
ments : 

First — To provide for the payment for the Louisiana 
Purchase. 

Second — To provide for the payment of debts due 
American citizens from the French Republic, now^ as- 
sumed by the United States. 

Third — To provide for taking possession of the ceded 
territory and establishing civil government therein. 

The First Convention, as we have seen, provided that 
for the payment for the ceded territory, the United 
States Government was to issue stocks or bonds irre- 
deemable for fifteen years, and then to be discharged in 
annual payments with an interest of six per cent, payable 
semi-annually in London. Amsterdam or Paris. 

For a compliance with this, John Randolph, of Vir- 
ginia, introduced into the House of Representatives, 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 197 

October i8th — second day of the session — a bill entitled 
"An Act authorizing the creation of a stock of eleven 
million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the 
purpose of carrying into effect the First Convention of 
the 30th of April, 1803." It provided that in three 
months after the ratification of the cession^ this stock was 
to be issued by the Treasury of the United States ; that 
the whole should be paid in fifteen years ; and that seven 
hundred thousand dollars was to be set aside annually to 
the credit of the Sinking Fund for this purpose. 

At once the Federalists, with a few noted exceptions, 
arrayed themselves in opposition to this bill. Gaylord 
Griswold, of New York, Roger Griswold, of Connecticut, 
and Andrew Gregg, of Pennsylvania, led the opposition 
in the House; while White, of Delaware, and Olcott, of 
Connecticut, were at the head of it in the Senate. Gay- 
lord Griswold based his opposition to it on constitutional 
grounds and with clearness and force discussed at length 
the provisions of the Treaty and Conventions. Roger 
Griswold asserted that neither Louisiana nor any other 
foreign nation can be incorporated into the Union, either 
by treaty or law. White and his colleagues in the Senate 
produced similar and other arguments and for twelve 
days the discussion continued in both branches. The 
opposition demanded copies of the Treaty and Conven- 



198 THE STORY OF THE 

tioiis, together with all the diplomatic correspondence per- 
taining to the Louisiana Purchase, and by long debates 
delayed action. The genuineness of the treaty was at- 
tacked. It was declared that the region had been but 
little explored and far less traversed by surveyors ; that 
none knew its boundaries or extent and that, therefore, 
it should not be accepted. ''Then, too," said they, ''the 
United States could have driven Spain out of Louisiana 
for one-sixth of the sum to be paid to France for it ; and 
that, too, at a time when she had violated a sacred treaty 
obligation with us, thereby insulting the President and 
prostrating the commerce of the western country. All 
the world would have applauded our conduct in taking 
forcible possession of New Orleans." Again it was 
urged that if "in occupying that territory we have to 
fire a musket, to charge a bayonet, or to lose a drop of 
blood, it will not be such a cession on the part of France 
as should justify to the people of this country the payment 
of any, and much less so enormous a sum of money." 
"Its possession," said they, "will be productive of immeas- 
urable evils. It is but buying of France authority to make 
war on Spain. We must have New Orleans to secure to 
ourselves forever the complete and uninterrupted naviga- 
tion of the Mississippi. ^ -^ ^ g^i^- ^s to Louisiana, 
this new, immense, unbounded world would, if it should 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 199 

ever be incorporated into this Union, be the greatest 
curse that ever fell upon it. * * ^ The settlement of 
this country," they said, ''will be highly injurious to the 
United States. We have already territory enough. * 
* "^ Then, too, if the acquisition was a desirable one, 
fifteen millions of dollars is an enormous sum to pay 
for it." 

But these arguments were met most ably. John Ran- 
dolph, the author and patron of the bill, spoke for it, and 
of the purpose for which it was designed. He was an 
orator, and with argument resplendent with rhetorical 
flourish and literary excellence, replied to the Griswolds ; 
while Joseph H. Nicholson, of Maryland, the foremost 
lawyer of the House, defended the constitutional right 
of the United States to acquire territory, asserting that 
every sovereign country of the world possesses the right 
to increase its domain, and that this could be done only 
by purchase or conquest. In the Senate John Brecken- 
ridge bore down all opposition, and then John O. Adams, 
himself a Federalist, arose and said : ''Our Ministers 
may have exceeded their powers when they negotiated 
the treaty, for they had no authority to do it ; the Senate 
may have exceeded its powers when it ratified the treaty ; 
the House may exceed its powers by passing bills for car- 
rying out its provisions. Nay, that the States, compelled 



200 THE STORY OF THE 

to amend the Constitution in other causes, could not do it 
in this without exceeding their powers, there still remains 
with the country a force competent to adopt and sustain 
every part of our engagements and to carry them into 
execution ; such is the public favor attending the transac- 
tion which began with the negotiation of the treaty and 
will end in the full and undisturbed possession of the 
ceded territory. * ''= * We can, therefore, fulfill our 
parts of the conditions and that is all France has a right 
to expect of us." Dayton voiced the sentiments of 
Adams and the bill passed both houses by large majorities. 
Thus was provision made to pay for the Louisiana Pur- 
chase.* 

On the 29th of October, the House of Representatives 
considered and unanimously passed another bill which 
was entitled *'An Act making provision for the payment 
of claims of citizens of the United States by virtue of the 
Second Convention of the 30th of April, 1803, between 
the United States and the French Republic." It pro- 



N 
*Immediately after the Treaty was concluded, the banking house of 
Baring, in London, and that of Hope, in Amsterdam, offered, for a moderate 
commission, to at once take from the French government the American 
stocks which were to be created in payment of the purchase of Louisiana, at 
their current value in England, and to meet our engagements to France by 
stipulated installments. On the 7th of June, 1803, Livingston wrote Madison 
of the offer, or rather, contract, of these banks with the French government. 
A third of the whole debt was to be advanced to them in Washington, and the 
remaining two-thirds lo be sent to Paris through L. A. Pichon, the French 
Minister at Washington. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 201 

vided for the payment of three milhon seven hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars of these claims, which when added 
to the eleven million two hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars provided for in the previous bill, equalled the sum 
of fifteen millions, which was to be paid for Louisiana. 
The basis of the sum to pay these debts was the two mil- 
lions of dollars appropriated on the preceding 12th of 
January to aid Jefiferson in his intercourse with foreign 
nations and which had not been used. He was now to 
borrow one million seven hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars to be added for this purpose. Another clause of 
this bill provided for the appropriation of eighteen 
thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars for the com- 
pensation of commissioners, secretaries and agents for 
investigating the claims of citizens, and for contingencies. 
The bill went to the Senate, which body passed it on 
the second of November, 1803. 

On the 22d of October John Breckenridge ofifered a 
bill in the Senate entitled "x\n Act authorizing the Presi- 
dent to take possession of and occupy the territories 
ceded by France to the United States and directing him 
to employ the army and navy of the United States for this 
purpose. Also for the government of the same until 
Congress shall have made provision for the government 
of said territories." The Senate passed this bill on the 



202 THE SrORY OF THE 

26th by a vote of twenty-six yeas and six noes. The 
same day it was reported in the House and there passed 
two days later, by a vote of eighty-nine for and twenty- 
three against. An appropriation of fifteen thousand dol- 
lars was then made to enable the President to carry the 
provisions of the act into efifect. 

Thus it is seen that when Congress had been in session 
but seventeen days the Treaty and Conventions had been 
ratified and all legislation made necessary by both had 
been enacted. All that now remained was to occupy the 
land. 

The purchase of Louisiana secured to the American 
people, independently of territorial expansion, several 
prime national objects. It gave them that unity and inde- 
pendence which is derived from the absolute control and 
disposition of their commerce, trade and industry, in every 
department, without the hindrance or meddling of any 
intervening nation between them and the sea, or between 
them and the markets of the world. It gave them ocean 
boundaries on all exposed sides, for it left Canada exposed 
to them — not them to Canada. It made them indisputably 
and forever the controlers of the Western Hemisphere. 
It placed their national course, character, civilization and 
destiny in their own hands. It gave them the certain 
sources of a not distant numerical strength, to which that 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 203 

of the mightiest empires of the past or present are but 
insignificant. It was, too, an acquisition which cost not 
a drop of blood. The men who secured it were not the 
leaders of armies. There were no tears — no human 
woes. Thus was acquired for the United States more 
extensive and fertile domain than ever for a moment 
owned the sway of Napoleon. 



204 THE STORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The United States in Possession of the Louisiana 

Purchase — Civil Government 

Established Therein. 

We have seen that on the 30th of November, 1803, the 
Marquis de Casa Calvo, the commissioner or agent on the 
part of Spain, had surrendered Louisiana to Peter 
Clement Laussat, appointed on the part of France to 
receive it. He arrived in New Orleans on the 24th of 
March for this purpose, but the formal transfer was de- 
layed more than eight months. Soon after coming to the 
Mississippi, Laussat had an intimation that his Govern- 
ment had sold Louisiana to the United States. Writing 
home for definite information respecting this matter, he 
received a reply informing him of the cession and a com- 
mission with instructions to deliver the province to the 
American commissioners as soon as he should have re- 
ceived it from Spain. This, as stated, occurred on the 
30th of November, and that day Spanish sovereignty 
ended on the banks of the Mississippi. Then Laussat 
stood alone, surrounded on all hands by civil and military 
officers of Spain, but none had authority to keep the 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 205 

peace. There waj-: not a French official or soldier in 
Louisiana save himself, and the American commissioners 
were far away. How should anarchy be prevented? 
Daniel Clark was the United States Consul at New 
Orleans, and Laussat with his assistance raised a volun- 
teer force of three hundred men, chiefly Americans, and 
with these order was maintained until the arrival of the 
American commissioners. Laussat was the colonial 
prefect of the French Republic; and he acted under a 
commission and special mandate from Napoleon. It was 
dated at St. Cloud, June 6, 1803, eleventh year of the 
French Republic, and was countersigned by Hugues 
Maret, the French Secretary of State, and by Dacres, the 
Minister of Marine. 

Notwithstanding the cession to France, there was yet a 
very considerable Spanish military establishment on the 
Lower Mississippi. This consisted in part of the New 
Orleans Battalion of five hundred men ; the City Artillery 
of one hundred and fifty men ; the City Cavalry of two 
companies of seventy men each ; the Provincial Regiment 
of one thousand men, and the Mississippi Legion of six- 
teen hundred men, the latter distributed at various 
points. Then, too, there was a long list of Spanish 
officers, among them being the Marquis de Casa Calvo, a 
brigadier-general of the army of Spain, and late chief com- 



206 THE STORY OF THE 

mandant of Louisiana ; Don Joseph Martinez de Crosa, 
brigadier-major of engineers; Andre Lopez Armesto, 
commissary of war; Don Benigno Gareior Calderon, 
adjutant of the Regiment of Louisiana ; Don Fernando 
Moreno, surgeon of the hospital ; Don Anthony MoHna, 
comm.andant of boats ; Don Juan Ventura Morales, pay- 
master of the army, and late Intendant, pro tempore, who 
had closed the port of New Orleans against the deposit 
of American merchandise ; and Don Manuel Toledano, 
officer of the guard, together with half a hundred others 
of various ranks. 

The mail which left Washington City on Monday, 
November 7th, bound overland for Natchez contained 
two commissions bearing date of October 31st, each hav- 
ing the signature of Jefferson and being countersigned by 
Madison as Secretary of State. One of these was for 
William Charles Cole Claiborne,* then Governor of 
Mississippi Territory, whose capital was the town of 



*William C. C. Claiborne was born in Sussex county, Virginia, in 1775. He 
received an excellent education, studied law, and located for the practice of 
his profession in Nashville, Tennessee, the first constitution of which State he 
assisted to frame. He was the first member of Congress from the Nashville 
district, serving as such from 1797 to 1801, and in the latter year was appointed 
governor of Mississippi Territory. From December 20, 1803, to October 1, 1804, 
he was governor of both Mississippi Territory and the Province of Louisiana. 
On the latter date he became governor of the Territorj-^ of Orleans and as 
such served by successive appointments until 1812, when he was elected by 
the people governor of the State of lyOuisiana. In this capacity he served 
until 1816, when he was chosen a United States Senator, but died in New 
Orleans, November 23, 1817, before taking his seat. His name is commem- 
orated in that of counties in Mississippi, lyOuisiana and Tennessee. 





I 



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ui a; 

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(206) 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 207 

Wasliington near A'^atclicz. The other was for General 
James Wilkinson,* then commanding the Western Mili- 
tary Department. They were thus appointed as commis- 
sioners on the part of the United States to receive the 
formal surrender of the Louisiana Purchase from 
Laussat, the French commissioner, then awaiting their 
coming at New Orleans. Claiborne was, at the time, at 
the seat of government of Mississippi Territory. Wilkin- 
son had his headquarters at Fort Adams which he him- 
self had erected five years before on Loftus Fleights on 
the east bank of the Mississippi, now in the extreme 
WTsteni part of Wilkinson County, Mississippi. At this 
time, he was absent in Florida, but when returning, 
stopped in New Orleans on the 23d of November but 
seven days before the Spanish commissioner transferred 
Louisiana to Laussat. Hastening on to Fort Adams, he 
there made necessary preparation as required by the 
instructions which accompanied his commission wdiich he 
found awaiting him at that place. 



*Janies Wilkinson was born at Benedict, Maryland, in 1757. He was 
educated for the medical profession, but joined Washington's army at Cam- 
bridge at the beginning of the Revolution. He rose rapidly in the scale of 
promotion and was acting adjutant-general of the army at the battle of 
Saratoga. At the close of the war he removed to Lexington, Kentucky, where 
he was engaged in commercial and other enterprises until 1791, when he 
again entered the army and was very successful in his campaign against the 
northwestern Indians, and upon the death of General Wayne, in 1796, suc- 
ceeded to the command of the Western Army. He rose to the rank of major- 
general in the second war with Great Britain, at the close of which he re- 
moved to Mexico and died near the city of that name December 28, 1825. 



208 THE STORY OF THE 

But now a question of much import presented itself 
to the authorities at Washington City. Would the large 
number of Spaniards in the Louisiana Purchase quietly 
and unresistingly witness its surrender by Laussat to the 
A'merican commissioners? Spain had, as we have seen, 
but recently opposed the cession, asserting that under the 
terms of an agreement with France that nation was never 
to alienate Louisiana. William H. Wells had but a few 
days before on the floor of the Senate, asked the question : 
''What would happen if, on the arrival of the American 
soldiers at New Orleans, the Spanish soldiers should 
refuse to obey the French prefect and choose to defend 
the territory?" At the same time and place, Samuel 
White had declared that "the buying of Louisiana from 
France is but the buying of a war with Spain." But 
Congress had directed the President to take possession 
of the ceded territory and had authorized him to employ 
the army to aid in this if necessary. He, accordingly, 
took the precaution as he said, "to be prepared for any- 
thing unexpected that might arise out of this transac- 
tion." Madison, writing Livingston in Paris, under 
date of November 9th, said : "Circumstances indicating 
that delivery may be refused at New Orleans, on the part 
of Spain, requires that provision should be made as well 
for taking as receiving. * * ^ The force provided 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 209 

for this object is to consist of the regular troops near at 
hand, as many of the miHtia as may be required and be 
drawn from Mississippi Territory, and as many volun- 
teers from any quarter as can be picked up. To these 
will be added five hundred mounted militia from Ten- 
nessee." Pichon, the French Minister at Washington, 
issued orders to Laussat and urged upon him ''the neces- 
sity of co-operating in these measures of compulsion, 
should they prove necessary, by the refusal of the Span- 
ish officers to comply without them." 

General Wilkinson made haste to assemble the regular 
troops from Fort Massac, in Illinois Territory, and other 
posts, at Fort Adams, and thus was collected an army 
of occupation on the soil of Mississippi. The entire 
military forces of Ohio and Kentucky were ordered under 
arms with instructions to be ready to march at a minute's 
notice; and five hundred State troops from Tennessee 
advanced and occupied Natchez. Claiborne left Colonel 
Cato West, the territorial secretary, in charge of the 
government of Mississippi Territory, and journeyed 
from Washington town to Natchez. He left that place 
on the 2d of December and was escorted to Fort Adams 
by the Natchez Artillery, the Natchez Rifles, and a com- 
pany of militia, and was speedily followed by three com- 
panies of volunteers from Jefferson and Claiborne 
counties in Mississippi. 



210 THE STORY OF THE 

When all was in readiness, the army took up the line of 
march from Fort Adams, under the command of one man 
and escorting another, the two of whom were to receive, 
not a city, but the sovereignty over a vast territorial 
empire, together with the full and complete control of the 
navigation of the mightiest river on the globe. On Sat- 
urday evening, December 17th, this army halted and 
went into camp within two miles of New Orleans. Here 
the Sabbath day was spent in quiet, and early Monday 
morning an officer bore a message from the American 
camp to Laussat, informing him of the presence of Clai- 
borne and Wilkinson, and that they were there with 
credentials from the United States Government authoriz- 
ing them to receive the Province of Louisiana. There 
was no delay, for Laussat replied that on the very next 
day — December 20th — he should be ready to surrender 
it to them. Early in the morning, the Americans entered 
the city and at 10 o'clock the commissioners of the tw^o 
nations assembled in the hall of the old Hotel de A^ille 
"accompanied on both sides by the chiefs and officers of 
the army and navy, by the municipality and divers re- 
spectable citizens of their respective republics." Then 
Claiborne and Wilkinson presented to Laussat the 
authority given them "to take possession of and occupy 
the territory ceded by France;" and he, in turn, exhibited 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 211 

his credentials authorizing- him to transfer the Province, 
and declared that he "put from that moment the said 
commissioners of the United States in possession of the 
country, territories and dependencies of Louisiana." He 
then formally delivered ''at this public sitting the keys 
of the City of New Orleans," and at the same moment 
proclaimed that he discharged "from their oath of 
fidelity" to the French Republic, all the "citizens and in- 
habitants of Louisiana who shall choose to remain under 
the dominion of the United States.'"'' The occasion was 
one of solemnity. The deed of cession, written in both 
the English and French languages, and which transferred 
the sovereignty over the fairest portion of the globe from 
one republic to another, was in the silence of the hour 
signed by the commissioners. Then the American sol- 
diers, drawn up in line on the Place d'Armes, fired a 
volley, a band played 'TIail Columbia ;" the beautiful flag 
of France was hauled down from a lofty pole, where it 
had waved but twenty days, and, amid the acclamations 
of the people, the x\merican flag rose and flung out its 
folds of bright stars and stripes to the breezes, and there 
it floated high above the spires and domes of the 
''Crescent Citv." The Louisiana Purchase was com- 



*Appendix "A" should be read in connection with the statements pre- 
sented here. 



212 THE STORY OF THE 

pleted. The American soldiers were there, but, as Jeifer- 
son said, "no occasion arose, however, for their services. 
There was not the least disturbance of any character." 
The Spanish officers looked with silent interest on the 
scene then transpiring, as they had done but twenty days 
before when their own country transferred the Province 
to France. Some of them became American citizens and 
lived and died in the Louisiana Purchase ; while the 
others remained until assigned to duty in the Spanish 
armies in South America, the West Indies and New 
Spain. 

As quickly as the deed of cession was signed the com- 
missioners wrote James Madison, the Secretary of State, 

as follows: 

City of New Orleans^ Dec. 20, 1803. 
Sir : — We have the satisfaction to announce to you that the 
Province of Louisiana was this day surrendered to the United 
States by the commissioner of France ; and to add that the flag 
of our country was raised in this city amidst the acclamation of 
the inhabitants. 

Accept assurances of our respectful consideration. 

William C. C. Claiborne. 
Jas. Wilkinson. 

Not only had Claiborne been appointed one of the com- 
missioners to receive the cession, but he was made Gov- 
ernor of the Province of Louisiana as well, being "duly 
invested with the powers heretofore exercised by the 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 213 

Governor and Intendant of Louisiana." He immediately 
assumed the government and issued a proclamation in 
which he reviewed briefly the events leading up to the 
possession of the Louisiana Purchase by the United States 
and then declared that : 

"The government heretofore exercised over the said Province 
of Louisiana, as well under the authority of Spain as of the 
French Republic, has ceased and that of the United -States of 
America is established over the same ; that the inhabitants thereof 
will be incorporated in the union of the United States, and ad- 
mitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the 
Federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, ad- 
vantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States; that 
in the meantime they shall be maintained and protected 
in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and 
the religion which they profess ; that all laws and municipal 
regulations, which were in existence at the cessation of the late 
government, remain in full force ; and all civil officers charged 
with their execution, except those whose powers have been 
specially vested in me, and except also such officers as have been 
intrusted with the collection of the revenue, are continued in 
their functions, during the pleasure of the Governor for the time 
being or until provision shall otherwise be made." 

Immediately after issuing his proclamation, he deliv- 
ered the following address to the citizens of Louisiana : 

"Fellow Citizens of Louisiana: 

On the great and interesting event now finally consummated — 
an event so advantageous to yourselves, and so glorious to united 
America, I can not forbear offering you my warmest congratu- 
lations. The wise policy of the Consul of France has, by the 



214 THE STORY OP THE 

cession of Louisiana to the United States, secured to you a con- 
nection beyond the reach of change, and to your posterity the 
sure inheritance of freedom. The American people receive you 
as brotliers ; and will hasten to extend to you a participation in 
those inestimable rights, which have formed the basis of our own 
unexampled prosperity. Under the auspices of the American 
Government, you may confidently rely upon the security of your 
liberty, your property, and the religion of your choice. You 
may with equal certainty rest assured that your commerce will 
be promoted and your agriculture cherished ; in a word, that your 
true interests will be among the primary objects of our national 
legislature. In return for these benefits, the United States will 
be amply remunerated, if your growing attachment to the Con- 
stitution of our country, and your veneration for the principles 
on which it is founded, be duly proportioned to the blessings 
which they will confer. Among your firsi duties, therefore, you 
should cultivate with assiduity among yourselves the advance- 
ment of political information ; you should guide the rising genera- 
tion in the paths of republican economy and virtue ; you should 
encourage literature, for without the advantages of education 
your descendants will be unable to appreciate the intrinsic worth 
of the government transmitted to them. 

As for myself, fellow citizens, accept a sincere assurance, that, 
during my continuance in the position in which the President 
of the United States has been pleased to place me, every exertion 
will be made on my part to foster your internal happiness, and 
forward your general welfare, for it is only by such means that 
I can secure to myself the approbation of those great and just 
men who preside in the councils of our nation." 

President Jefferson was kept fully advised of the 
progress of affairs at New Orleans, with which he was 
delighted, for that for which he had waited so anxiously 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 215 

was now finally consummated. On the i6th of January, 
1804, he officially informed Congress of the peaceable 
possession of Louisiana, and closed his final message by 
saying: "On this important acquisition so favorable to 
the immediate interests of our western citizens, so 
auspicious to the peace and security of the nation in 
general, which adds to our country territories so exten- 
sive and fertile, and to our citizens new brethren to par- 
take of the blessings of freedom and self-government, I 
offer to Congress and our country my sincerest con- 
gratulations." 

Governor Claiborne made New Orleans the capital of 
the new possessions and spent much of his time there, 
while Cato West continued as the acting Governor of 
Mississippi Territory. At the beginning of the year 1804, 
Claiborne sent a detachment to occupy Fort St. Leon, on 
the west bank of the Mississippi and nearly opposite 
New Orleans. This was the first American garrison in 
the Louisiana Purchase west of that river. When Casa 
Calvo surrendered the Province to France, he did so with 
its full extent — both Upper and Lower Louisiana — and 
with similar bounds it was transferred to the United 
States by Laussat, but neither he, his representative, nor 
any official of the L^nited States appeared at St. Louis, 
and Delassus, the Spanish Lieutenant-Governor, continued 



216 THE STORY OF THE 

in command at that post one hundred and twenty days 
after the cession, or until March lo, 1804, when he 
surrendered it to Captain Amos Stoddard""' of the United 
States army, who arrived, and on that day hoisted the 
stars and stripes over St. Louis, which was later to grow 
into a great American city. There he remained as military 
and civil commandant until July 4, 1805. 

The administration of Claihorne was but temporary, 
and, as he had announced in his proclamation, he enforced 
the laws and regulations of Spain as they had previously 
existed in the Province. And now that the United States 
was in possession of the Louisiana Purchase, Congress 
hastened to establish civil government therein. An act 
"for erecting Louisiana into two Territories and providing 
for the temporary Governm.ent thereof," was approved by 
President Jefferson on the 4th of March, 1804. This act 
became effective and in full force and operation on the 
first day of the succeeding October. It provided that 
"All that part of the region under the name of Louisiana, 
south of the Mississippi Territory and of an east and 
west line to commence on the Mississippi River at the 



*Atnos Stoddard was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, October 26, 1762. He 
received a good education, served in the revolutionary army, studied law, 
w^as chief clerk of the supreme court of Massachusetts, entered the regular 
army, rose to the rank of major, and died July 16, 1813, from wounds received 
at the siege of Fort Meigs. He wrote much, his best known work being 
"Sketches, Historical and Otherwise, of Louisiana." 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 217 

Thirty-third degree of latitude north and extend west to 
the western boundary of the said cession, shall constitute 
a Territory of the United States under the name of the 
Territory of Orleans," and of this the city of New 
Orleans was made the seat of government. The Gover- 
nor was to be appointed by the President for a term of 
three years, at a salary of five thousand dollars per annum ; 
the Secretary was also to be appointed by the President 
for a term of four years, his salary being fixed at two 
thousand dollars per annum. It was his duty to record 
and preserve all proceedings of the Governor and of the 
legislative council and to make reports to the President 
every six months. The legislative council consisted of 
the Governor and thirteen of "the most fit and discreet 
persons, to be appointed by the President and to receive 
four dollars per day while in the discharge of their 
duties." William C. C. Claiborne, Governor of Missis 
sippi Territory and of the Province of Louisiana as well, 
having filled the latter position ten months and eleven 
days, was now relieved of the duties of both offices and 
appointed chief executive of the Territory of Orleans, the 
duties of which he assumed October i, 1804, and by suc- 
cessive appointments continued to discharge until 18 12. 
Section twelve of the act provided that the residue of the 
Province of Louisiana ceded by France, the area of which 



218 THE STORY OF THE 

was more than eight hundred thousand square miles, 
should be called the District of Louisiana, "and the Gov- 
ernment of Indiana Territory is extended hereby over the 
same." Early in the summer of 1804, General William 
Henry Harrison, then Governor of Indiana Territory, 
visited St. Louis for the purpose of learning the needs 
of the inhabitants. Then he returned to Vincennes and 
made these known to the Legislative Council, which body 
enacted such laws as were deemed necessary to meet the 
demands of the people on the west side of the Mississippi. 
But the District of Louisiana w^as not long to continue 
as such, for, on the 3rd of March, 1805, it was, by an act 
of Congress, detached from Indiana and erected into the 
Territory of Louisiana with St. Louis as its capital. Its 
form of Government was similar in all respects to that 
of the Territory of Orleans. As such, it began its ex- 
istence on the 4th day of July, 1805, when General James 
Wilkinson entered upon the duties of Governor, a position 
which he held until succeeded by Captain Meriwether 
Lewis, July 4, 1807, he having been appointed on the 3rd 
of the preceding March. He continued in office until 
October 11, 1809 — the date of his tragic death — when 
Benjamin Howard became Governor, and as such served 
until Missouri Territory grew out of that of Louisiana, 
October i, 1812. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 219 

Now, the United States was in possession of the Louisi- 
ana Purchase, the whole of which was under two terri- 
torial governments of the second class — those of Orleans 
and Louisiana. Both the French and Spanish sovereign- 
ties were gone and American laws and governmental in- 
stitutions were taking root on the west side of the Mis- 
sissippi. Thus was the navigation of the mighty river — 
the Mai bran cia of the Mobilian nations, the Misisipi 
of the Algonquins, the Michi Scpe of the early writers, 
the St. Louis of the French, the Palisado of the Spanish, 
and the Mississippi of the Americans — become free in- 
deed ; and thus was the Louisiana Purchase which, for 
more than a century, had been a toy, a plaything, in the 
hands of those who sought to grasp it, become the prop- 
erty and integral part of a nation whose enterprise and 
liberal laws were to place it in the van of the foremost 
nations of the earth. 



220 THE STORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Lewis and Clark Expedition — Other Explora- 
tions IN the Louisiana Purchase. 

(In connection with this Chapter read Appendices "b." "C" and "D.") 

At the close of the eighteenth century comparatively 
little was known of the geography of the western half of 
North America, especially of the region since called the 
Louisiana Purchase. But the lack of this information 

was not long to continue. On the i8th of January, i8o^ 

— one hundred and two days before Livingston and Mon- 
roe had concluded the treaty of Paris — Jefferson sent a 
confidential message to Congress. In this he referred to 
the recent occurrences on the Mississippi ; to the absence 
of information regarding the region beyond that river; 
and how other civilized nations had incurred great expense 
to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge by undertaking 
voyages of discovery and journeys of exploration. Then 
he declared that it was in the powers of that body to 
increase the interests of commerce, and advance the geo- 
graphical knowledge of our own continent. He stated 
further, that an intelligent officer with a small number of 
men adapted for that service, might explore the region 
west of the Mississippi, even to the western ocean. Con- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 221 

gress viewed this recommendation with favor, and an ap- 
propriation of two thousand, five hundred dollars for 
equipment was made, ''for the purpose of extending the 
external commerce of the United States." 

The prosecution of this enterprise was left by Congress 
wholly in the hands of the President, who appointed his 
nephew and private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, a cap- 
tain in the First Regiment of United States Regular 
Infantry, to the command of the expedition about to be 
undertaken. His instructions set forth that he was "ap- 
pointed to explore the river Missouri to its source, and 
crossing the highlands by the shortest portage, to seek 
the best water communication to the Pacific Ocean." He 
was directed to select those whom, he desired to accom- 
pany him and his first choice was that of William Clark, 
a second lieutenant of United States artillerists, and a 
brother of George Rogers Clark, the conqueror of the 
Illinois country, who is frequently called the "Hannibal 
of the West." 

Captain Lewis left Washington City on Tuesday, the 
5th day of July, 1803, ^^^ journeyed overland to Pitts- 
burg, and thence descended the Ohio River to Louisville, 
where he was joined by Lieutenant Clark, and together 
they proceeded to St. Louis, then a village but recently 
known as "Pain Court." Spain was still in full pos- 



222 THE STORY OF THE 

session of the Louisiana Purchase and Delassus, her Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of Upper Louisiana, whose capital was at 
St. Louis, would not, could not, permit a detachment of 
American troops to assemble within the dominions of his 
King. A spot was therefore selected on the Illinois side 
of the Mississippi, at the mouth of the little Wood River, 
a short distance below that of the Missouri, and to it was 
given the name of Camp Dubois. Here Lieutenant Clark 
assumed command while Captain Lewis visited Kaskaskia 
and other posts and selected the men who were to com- 
pose the expedition. All were assembled at Camp Du- 
bois in the month of November and went into winter 
quarters, where long, dreary months were passed ; but 
important events transpired in that time. On the 30th 
of November, Spain conveyed the Louisiana Purchase to 
France; December 20th, that nation transferred it to the 
United States; and on the loth of March, 1804, Captain 
Lewis witnessed the surrender of St. Louis and its de- 
pendencies by Delassus to Captain Amos Stoddard, who 
received it for the United States. 

In the early part of May, 1804, there were hurry and 
bustle at Camp Dubois. The expedition'^ was preparing 



*OFFICIAI^ ROSTER OF THE LEWIS AND CIvARK EXPEDITION. 

Meriwether L,ewis, Captain, First United States Regular Infantry. 
William Clark, Second Lieutenant. United States Artillerists. 
John Ordway, Sergeant; Nathaniel Pryor, Sergeant; Charles Floyd, 
Sergeant; George Drewyer, Interpreter and hunter; Toussaint Chaboneau, 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 223 

to move. There were two officers, fourteen regulars from 
the United States army, nine volunteers from Kentucky, 
one corporal and a guard of six soldiers, two interpreters, 
two French oarsmen, and nine boatmen, making forty-five 
in all. In addition there were an Indian woman, the wife 
of an interpreter, and a colored man named York, who 
was the body servant of Lieutenant Clark. 

A barge, or keel-boat, fifty-five feet in length, with a 
square sail and twenty-two oars, two perogues, or open 
boats, one of six oars, the other of eight, and several 
canoes made up the little flotilla, lying at the water's edge. 
On board the barge were twenty-one bales and two boxes 
of goods for the use of the men and for presents for 



Interpreter: Peter (irusate, French Oarsman; Francis Labiche, French 
Oarsman. 

Privates.— Patrick Gass, William Bratton, John Colter, John Collins, 
Reuben Fields, Joseph Fields, Robert Frazier, Georgfe Gibson, Silas Goodrich, 
Hugh Hall, Thomas P. Howard, Jean Baptisle L,e Page, Hugh McNeal, John 
Potts, John Shields, George Shannon, John B. Thompson, William Werner, 
Joseph Whitehouse, Alexander VVillard, Richard Windsor, Peter Wiser and 
John Newman. Se-Ca-Ja-Wea, Indian woman of the Snake nation, whose 
name signifies "bird-woman"; she was the wife of Chaboneau, the interpreter. 
York, the colored body servant of L,ieutenant Clark. 

In addition to these Richard Worfengton, a corporal in the United vStates 
army, with his guard of six soldiers, all of whose names are unknown- 
together with nine watermen or boatmen, names likewise unknown, accom- 
panied the expedition up the Missouri. 

The foregoing list of names is believed to be as accurate as any which 
has been or can be made. Names differ in different rosters. On some the 
•names of Newman and Worfengton do not appear at all, but both were paid 
by Congress as enlisted men on the expedition. See Appendix "C." Then, 
too, there is great diversity in the spelling of names. Drewyer, on some lists, 
appears as Drulyard, while those of Chaboneau, Crusate, Labiche and others 
are spelled almost a dozen different ways by different authors, and frequently 
by the same author. 



224 THE STORY OF THE 

the Indians. There were two horses to be led along the 
river bank to be used in carrying in meat. Captain Lewis 
was the scientist of the expedition and Lieutenant Clark 
its military director. 

At length all was in readiness, and at four o'clock on 
Monday evening, May 14, 1804, the expedition, with 
Lieutenant Clark in command, left Camp Dubois, crossed 
the Mississippi, entered the mouth of the Missouri, and 
began the voyage up the long and silent river toward the 
Rocky Mountains. Majestic river! the longest tributary 
stream on the globe ! Who that has stood upon its banks 
has not, in thought, attempted to trace its immense length 
through distant regions to the stupendous mountains from 
which it springs ! 

In the afternoon of the i6th, they arrived at the old 
French town of St. Charles, where they fired a salute and 
the inhabitants, who had learned of the enterprise, flocked 
to the river to see the heroic men who thus dared the 
perils of a wilderness inhabited by wild beasts and savage 
men. Here they awaited the arrival of Captain Lewis, 
who had been detained at St. Louis perfecting arrange- 
ments with his agent. Captain Amos Stoddard, then in 
command at that place. They left here on the 21st under 
a salute of guns and three cheers from the inhabitants, 
and on the 25th passed the little village of St. John's, or 



LOUISIANA PURCHASn. 225 

La Charette, then the most western outpost of civihzation 
in the Missouri \^alley. On the 27th they were at the 
mouth of the Gasconade River, one hundred miles from 
the Mississippi. 

Onward the voyage continued ; on the first day of June 
they passed the mouth of the Osage, and on the 4th of 
'the ensuing July their encampment was thirty miles above 
the mouth of the Kansas River, where they "fired a salute 
at sunrise in honor of the day" — the first celebration of 
the nation's natal day within the bounds of the Louisiana 
Purchase. This day they passed two streams, to the first 
of which they gave the name of Fourth of July creek, 
while the second received that of Independence. In the 
evening they "saluted the departing day with another 
gun." Seventeen days later they were on the site of 
Omaha, the present capital city of Nebraska, at the mouth 
of the Platte River. The first and second days of August 
were spent at Council Bluffs, where the officers held a 
council with the chiefs of the Missouri and Ottoe nations. 
Captain Lewis informed them of the Louisiana Purchase 
and of the conseciuent change of Government, with both 
of which they expressed themselves as being much 
pleased.* 



*The present town of Council Bluffs, in Pottawattamie county, Iowa, is 
some distance below where these historic incidents took place. 



226 THE STORY OF THE 

While encamped near the site of the present Sioux City, 
on the 20th of August, Sergeant Charles Floyd, of Ken- 
tucky, the youngest man on the expedition, died, *'not- 
withstanding every possible effort was made by the com- 
manding officers and other persons to save his life.'' His 
last words, addressed to Lieutenant Clark, were : "I am 
going away and I want you to write me a letter." He 
was buried with the honors of war "in the most decent 
manner our circumstances would admit," and a "cedar 
post bearing his name and date of death" fixed at the 
head of his grave, which was on the "high prairie hills" 
one mile below the mouth of Floyd's River, which they 
"named to perpetuate the memory of the first man who 
had fallen in this important expedition." Patrick Gass 
was that day appointed a sergeant as the successor of the 
lamented dead. 

Ten days thereafter a treaty was concluded wath the 
Sioux Indians, on which occasion several of the chiefs 
"had round their necks strings of white bears' claws, some 
of which were three inches long." Late in October they 
arrived in the country of the Mandan Indians and it was 
now evident that they must soon, very soon, go into winter 
quarters. A treaty was therefore concluded with these 
Indians. "To the United Mandan Nation" Captain Lewis 
gave an iron mill on which to grind their grain ; to the 






GROUND PLAN OF FORT MANDAN. 

(After a description of the fort in Patrick Gass' Journal, page 61.) 



(227) 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 227 

chiefs various presents ; and in return received ten bushels 
of corn with permission to spend the winter in their 
country. On the first day of November the weather was 
very cold and they encamped in "a bottom covered with 
Cottonwood" on the north bank of the Missouri, about 
eight miles below the mouth of Knife River and a short 
distance above the site of the present town of Washburn, 
in McLean County, North Dakota. There their observa- 
tion showed them to be sixteen hundred and ten miles 
from the mouth of the Missouri. Here they built Fort 
Mandan, a frail structure, which was completed on the 
27th of November, on which day they moved into it, "just 
in time, for the snow fell seven inches deep that very 
night."* 

Daily the Indians resorted to the fort to exchange meat, 
furs and peltries for such articles as the whites had to 
spare. But on the 24th of December Captain Clark in- 
formed them that the morrow was one of the "white man's 
great medicine days" and that they must not then come 



♦Fort Mandan consisted of two rows of cabins containing four rooms 
each, and joined at the ends so as to form a right angle. The outer walls were 
about eighteen feet high, while on the inside they were not more than ten; 
the roof was made of puncheons, or split plank, and sloped inward, shed- 
fashion, projecting over about a foot at each end, and were covered with clay 
and grass. EJach room was fourteen by fourteen feet. The two sides oppo- 
site the rows of cabins were protected by pickets or palisades and in the 
yard, or court, two cabins were erected to contain the provisions and stores. 
It was in latitude 40°, 21', 47" north, and in longitude 99°, 24', 45" west from 
Greenwich. 



228 THE STORY OF THE 

to the fort. The order was obeyed and the result was a 
quiet Christmas day, which was ushered in by the dis- 
charge of the swivel and a volley of small arms. Then 
the American flag was hoisted over the little fort, where 
it was greeted with rounds of cheers. It was the first 
time the stars and stripes were ever unfurled in the Valley 
of the Upper Missouri. 

The long winter passed away and brought the early 
days of April, 1805. The north wind ceased to blow ; the 
sun shone brightly ; the birds sang sweetly ; the buds were 
bursting into life and everything betokened the return of 
spring. All was activity at Fort Mandan and on Sunday 
morning, April 7, 1805, the barge, or keel-boat, was made 
ready for the descent of the Missouri. It was freighted 
with the richest furs, buffalo-robes, peltries and horns of 
the mountain sheep. Captain Lewis sent to Henry Dear- 
born, the Secretary of War, a map of the Missouri — the 
first ever made of that river — showing each day's encamp- 
ment. To the President he sent a part of Lieutenant 
Clark's journal, which gave daily details of the progress 
of the expedition ; with sixty specimens of earth's salts 
and minerals, and the same number of plants collected 
along the Missouri, with places where found and virtues 
and properties when known. Many of the party wrote 
letters to distant friends in the States, and Captain Lewis 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 229 

sent an official communication to the President, which, on 
its receipt, was, by him, laid before Congress. These 
things were placed in the keeping of Corporal Richard 
Worfengton, who was in command of the barge. They 
were consigned to Captain Amos Stoddard at St. Louis, 
who forwarded them to H. B. Trist, collector of the port 
of New Orleans, who in turn sent them by ocean con- 
veyance to Washington City. Thirteen men went on 

board, and with Joseph Graveline, a Frenchman, as pilot, 
the descent of the river to St. Louis began. 

At five o'clock in the evening of that 7th of April day 
the entire party numbering thirty-one men and the Indian 
wife of Charboneau "left Fort Mandan in good spirits," 
in which they had spent one hundred and thirty-one days, 
and in the two perogues brought from the mouth of the 
Missouri and six canoes, they resumed the voyage up that 
river. On the 26th they were at the mouth of the Yellow- 
stone River, in what is now the extreme western part of 
North Dakota, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight miles 
from the mouth of the Missouri, and two hundred and 
seventy-eight above Fort Mandan. Onward they pressed 
and on the 20th of May they were at the mouth of 
Muscle Shell River. Thirteen days thereafter they passed 
the mouth of Maria's River, and on the 22nd of June, 
after passing through a wild and romantic region, had 



230 THE STORY OF THE \ 

arrived at the Great Falls of the Missouri, where they 
were transporting their canoes and baggage around that 
awful scene of plunging waters and rushing ^cataracts, of 
deep abysses and frightful chasms, around which the 
frowning mountains had an aspect of inexpressible lone- 
liness and gloom bordering on the sublime. In a few days 
they had passed the torrent of rushing waters which ex- 
tends over seventeen miles of the river's course, and were 
engaged in an effort to cover with elk-skins the iron 
framework of a boat which was twenty-six feet long, five 
and a half feet in the beam, and twenty-six inches in the 
bottom, and which had been constructed at Harper's 
Ferry, West Virginia, and taken by Captain Lewis by the 
way of Pittsburg for the purpose for which it was now 
to be used. 

A few days later they passed up the Missouri within 
fifteen miles of the site of Helena, the present capital of 
Montana, and on the 30th of July arrived at ''The Forks," 
now the town of Gallatin, where the Jefferson, Gallatin 
and Madison Rivers unite to form the Missouri. Their 
voyage continued up the first named river beyond Three 
Thousand Mile Island, where they buried their perogues 
and canoes and having procured horses from the Snake 
Indians, they followed on to the head of the river, and 
on the 19th of August passed over the Great Rocky Moun- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 235 

fallen the preceding night. On the next day Captain 
Lewis and party reached the Missouri, on which stream, 
near the mouth of the Yellowstone, on the 12th of August, 
all were soon happily reunited and began the descent of 
the river. The voyage was uneventful. Fort Mandan 
was in ruins. Sergeant Floyd's grave had l)een partly 
opened by Indians and they filled it again. On the even- 
ing of the 20th of September they heard the crowing of 
the chanticleer; saw some cows quietly grazing on the 
river's bank; and then, suddenly, the little village of St. 
John's appeared in view. A volley was fired and three 
cheers given ; then the inhabitants rushed to the river to 
welcome back the men whom they had long giv^n up as 
dead. The night of the 21st was spent at St. Charles, 
where they were the recipients of every act of hospitality 
which the inhabitants could bestow. Within three miles 
of the mouth of the river Captain Hunt was encamped 
with a company of United States artillerists. He received 
these explorers from the Pacific Ocean with a salute from 
his guns, and to this they replied with a volley of small 
arms. There they spent the night, the guests of the com- 
manding officer, and at twelve o'clock, noon, on Tuesday, 
September 23, 1806, they arrived at St. Louis, where all 
the people turned out to welcome them back to civilization, 
beyond the confines of which they had been absent two 
years, four months and nineteen days. They had found 



236 THE STORY OF THE 

their way through the trackless wastes of the great North- 
west down to the Pacific Ocean. But the results of their 
toils and privations were not seen at once. Fifty years 
afterward, when every member of that heroic band, save 
one,''' was dead, a living stream of men crossed the Louisi- 
ana Purchase and poured down into the valleys of Oregon 
and California, and the whitening sails of commerce cov- 
ered the bays and harbors of their coasts. Lewis and 
Clark, with their companions, had pioneered the way for 
the founders of Missouri Valley, Rocky Mountain, and 
Pacific Coast States. 

OTHER EXPLORATIONS. 

During the absence of the Lewis and Clark expedition 
the United States Government prosecuted other explora- 
tion in different parts of the Louisiana Purchase. On the 



♦Patrick Gass, the last survivor of the Lewis and Clark expedition, was 
born June 12, 1771, in Cumberland county. Pennsylvania. Soon after, the 
family removed to Maryland, but shortly returned to Pennsylvania. When 
but a boy he entered the army, and when not on the march or scouting, he 
was engaged in garrison duty in the forts on the upper Ohio. The United 
States, in 1799, in anticipation of war with France, enlisted troops for the 
army. Patrick Gass enrolled himself as a member of the 10th regiment, 
which spent the winter of 1799 in camp at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. In 
1802 he served in an expedition up the Tennessee river, and the next year in 
the artillery of Captain Bissell at Kaskaskia, Illinois. There he enlisted as a 
member of the expedition, then fitting out to explore the Pacific Coast. In 
1812 he entered the army again and participated in the battles of Chippewa, 
Lundy's Lane and Fort Erie, In 1831 he married a lady in Brooke county — 
now West Virginia— and there continued to reside until his death, in 1870, 
then in the ninety-ninth year of his age. He kept an accurate and elaborate 
journal of the expedition which was published in Pittsburg in 1807 and re- 
printed in Philadelphia in 1812. ^ 








The last survivor of the L,ewis and Clark Expedition. 

(From an ambrotype made at Wellsburgf, U . Va., about 1S50, and used 

by J. G. Jacobs as a frontispiece in his "Life and 

Times of Patrick Gass.") 



(236) 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 237 

1 8th of February, 1804, Nicholas P. Moore, member of 
Congress from Maryland, offered a resolution in the 
House of Representatives directing the Committee on 
Commerce and Manufactures to "inquire into the ex- 
pediency of authorizing the President of the United States 
to employ persons to explore such parts of the Province 
of Louisiana as he may think proper." This resolution 
declared that "the Government is not in possession of a 
good geographical description of Louisiana, which it is 
desirable to possess ; that much of its limits "are not com- 
pletely designated in the articles of cession ;" and that 
"the time may not be far distant when its boundaries may 
be the subject of negotiations between the former owners 
of the Province and the United States." 

The committee considered this resolution and through 
its chairman, Samuel T. Mitchell, of New York, made 
extended report thereon, March, 8, 1804. It set forth that 
the Government should possess correct information re- 
garding its new dominions, in which there were vast tracts 
in "original obscurity ;" that the "Red River is reported 
to be navigable for boats a thousand miles beyond Natch- 
itoches ; and that it flows "through a country abounding 
in rich pastures where neat cattle and horses range in 
innumerable herds as free as the natural inhabitants ;" 
that "masses of virgin silver and gold that glitter in the 



238 THE STORY OF THE 

veins of the rocks that underlie the Arkansas River, and 
mingle with minerals near certain other of its tributary 
streams, offer themselves to the hand of those who will 
gather, refine and convert them to use ;" that "the sources 
of these two rivers should be reached and the latitude and 
longitude of the same determined ;" that "the pathless 
forests might be advantageously penetrated along the 
channels of these two rivers by intelligent men sent to 
visit them ;" and that "an expedition of discovery up these 
prodigious rivers and their branches might redound as 
much to the honor and more to the interest of our Gov- 
ernment than the voyages by sea around the terraqueous 
globe have done for the polished nations of Europe that 
authorized them." 

The report met with favor and further exploration was 
authorized. In the autumn of 1804, Sir William Dunbar, 
an Englishman who had settled at Baton Rouge in 1775, 
at the time of the British rule in West Florida, was en- 
gaged by the American Government in the exploration of 
the Red River country. With a small party he left St. 
Catherine's Landing, on the Mississippi, eighteen miles 
below Natchez, on the i6th of October, 1804, and on the 
17th the mouth of the Red River was reached. This 
stream they ascended to that of Black River and then 
traversed the country to old Fort Miro on the Wichita, 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 239 

which river derived its name from an Indian nation once 
residing on its banks. There Baron Bastrop had a settle- 
ment which at this time contained about four hundred 
people — men, women and children. High up that river 
they found an old Dutch hunter who had resided there 
more than forty years, and who knew and could tell them 
of all the country round about. On the loth day of 
December the party arrived at the now famous Hot 
Springs of Arkansas, where they found "an open log cabin 
and a few board huts of split boards all calculated for 
summer encampment, and which had been erected by per- 
sons resorting to the springs for their health." There 
Dunbar made the first scientific observation on these 
waters, and did much to start for them their world-wide 
celebrity. Further exploration of the Wichita Valley was 
made and then the party returned to St. Catherine's Land- 
ing on the 31st of the ensuing January. 

In 1805, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike arrived at St. Louis, 
and on the 9th of August with a party left that place to 
explore the sources of the Mississippi. Late in the 
autumn of that year he reached the mouth of Crow Wing- 
River, where he established his winter quarters. Journeys 
on snowshoes were made from here to Leech Lake and 
other points. At this time he obtained from the Sioux 
Indians a grant of land nine miles square including the 



240 THE STORY OF THE 

Falls of St. Anthony, where the Fifth United States In- 
fantry built Fort Snelling in 1819, and the site on which 
the city of St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota, now stands. 
Pike returned to St. Louis in 1806 and there spent the 
summer making preparations for an extensive tour of 
exploration, which included the finding of the sources of 
the Arkansas and Red Rivers and the descent of the 
latter to New Orleans. Leaving St. Louis in the autumn 
he ascended the Missouri to the mouth of the Osage ; 
thence proceeding up that river and over tlie Kansas 
plains, entirely across the Louisiana Purchase, he reached 
the mountains of Colorado, where his name is perpetuated 
in that of Pike's Peak. Turning southward, he traveled 
around the source of the Arkansas River but discovered 
that of the Canadian, its chief tributary. Then he sought 
to find the fountain spring of the Red River and in his 
efforts to do this traversed mighty mountain ranges. But 
again he missed the object of his search and, at length, 
found himself on the upper waters of the Rio Grande in 
Northern New Mexico. There he established his winter 
quarters and there, in the spring of 1807 he was visited 
by a detachment of Spanish soldiers from Santa Fe, who 
told him that the commandant of that place had heard of 
his presence in the country, and, feeling sure that he 
desired to descend the Red River instead of the Rio 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 241 

Grande, had sent them to escort him by way of Santa Fe 
to Natchitoches, whence he could easily reach New Or- 
leans, according- to his original plan. This proffered kind- 
ness Pike gladly accepted. Imagine his surprise, then, on 
his arrival at Santa Fe, to find himself a prisoner arrested 
on the charge of having invaded the Spanish dominions ! 
From here the commandant sent him to the Governor- 
General of Chihuahua, who, after having heard his story 
of how he had been lost in the mountains, caused him to be 
taken under escort to San Antonio de Bexar, in Texas, 
whence he made his way to the United States. 

Thus through the efforts of Lewis and Clark, Dunbar 
and Pike, the geography of the Louisiana Purchase began 
to be made known. 



242 THE STORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Burr-Blennerhassett Conspiracy — The Begin- 
nings OF Literature in the Louisiana 
Purchase — Miscellany. 

It is not the intention to review that remarkable episode 
in American history known as the Burr-Blennerhassett 
Conspiracy, but rather to speak of it only in its con- 
nection with the ''Story of the Louisiana Purchase." 

Aaron Burr, one of the most singular characters whose 
name appears in American annals, had won distinction in 
war and had often been honored with the confidence of 
the people. In the year 1800 he and Thomas Jefferson 
were candidates for the presidency ; each had seventy- 
three electoral votes and the election was thrown into the 
House of Representatives, where, on the thirty-sixth 
ballot, Jefferson was chosen President by a majority of 
one vote, while Burr was elected to the Vice-Presidency. 
His course was unsatisfactory to his political party, and, 
seeing that he could not attain the presidency in 1804, 
he became a candidate for Governor of New York, but 
was defeated for this office by Morgan Lewis. The cam- 
paign was an exciting one and in the heat of it Burr killed 





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(242) 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 243 

Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Returning to Washington 
in the autumn of that year he presided over the ensuing 
session of the Senate which closed on the 4th of Marcli^ 
1805. 

Then, ruined politically and socially, he turned his at- 
tention to the West and became an adventurer. His am- 
bition was strong and far-reaching and his schemes were 
those of wealth, conquest and distinction. His chief as- 
sociate and confederate in the enterprise was Harman 
Blennerhassett, a representative of a distinguished Irish 
family, but who was born in Hampshire County, England, 
during the temporary residence of his parents in that 
country. There he began his education but was graduated 
from the University of Dublin after which he entered f^ >■ 

the profession of law. In England he wedded Margaret 
Agnew, a daughter of the Lieutenant-Governor ovf the 
Isle of Man and a granddaughter of General Agnew, who 
was with Wolf at Quebec. Soon after he sold his ex- 
tensive estates in Ireland and sailed for America, landing 
in New York. In 1797 he crossed the mountains and 
halted at Marietta, Ohio. The next year he purchased 
the beautiful island in the Ohio River, two miles below 
Parkersburg, West Virginia, and fourteen below Marietta, 
which has ever since borne his name. There he erected a 
palatial mansion — the best home on the borders of civiliza- 



244 THE STORY OF THE 

tion at that time. To it he brought a Hbrary of choice and 
vakiable works, with chemical and physical apparatus for 
his own pleasure and self-improvement. Possessed of an 
ample fortune to supply every want, his wife, a woman of 
rare beauty and accomplishments, of high spirits and am- 
bition, and with lovely children, he was surrounded with 
everything that can make life desirable and happy. 

Let us notice briefly what was then known as the "West- 
ern Country," which then had nearly a million inhabitants. 
The State of Kentucky had been a member of the Union 
for more than twelve years ; Tennessee for nearly nine, 
and Ohio for little more than two. V^irginia stretched 
away to the Ohio River and included the present state 
of West Virginia. Mississippi Territory had been erected 
in 1798; the Territory of Indiana, then including the 
"Illinois Country," formed in 1800; the Louisiana Pur- 
chase had been the property of the United States less than 
two years, but from it the Territory of Orleans had been 
formed eight months before when the residue of the Pur- 
chase had been attached to Indiana Territory. Far away 
to the southwest, beyond the Louisiana Purchase and a 
thousand miles from the Mississippi lay a vast and wealthy 
empire — Mexico — governed by tyrants whom the people 
hated and defended by troops whom soldiers should 
despise. For years the riches of that country had been 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 245 

the theme of travelers, and its mines, which were inex- 
haustible, had flooded the treasury of Spain with gold. 
Now, a bold adventurer, commanding an army of x\nglo- 
Saxon soldiers, could easily conquer that empire and make 
it his own. 

Somehow, somewhere in this western and southwestern 
country, Burr resolved to retrieve his fortunes, to attain 
distinction and power, and thus find an opportunity for 
triumphing over his once-admiring but now political en- 
emies. Leaving Washington he proceeded to Pittsburg. 
There, in April, he procured a boat in which he floated 
down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. At Cin- 
cinnati, Lexington, Louisville, Nashville and many other 
places he was received with enthusiastic attention ; he 
stopped at Blennerhassett's Island ; at Fort Massac, in the 
Illinois Country, he had an interview with General Wilk- 
inson, with whom he had stood side by side in Mont- 
gomery's attack on Quebec, who was then commanding 
the Western Military Department of the United States, 
and who, on the 4th of July of this year began his ad- 
ministration as Governor of Louisiana Territory, just 
then arisen out of the District of Louisiana. To him he 
confided so far as to tell him of his proposed plans and 
solicit his participation therein. Wilkinson sent him in 
a government boat, under escort, to New Orleans, where 
he arrived in June. 



246 THE STORY OF THE 

Burr, never idle, busied himself while in the Crescent 
City with the consideration of plans for future activity. 
Three schemes appear to have presented themselves, as 
follows : 

First — The mustering of an army and the invasion and 
conquest of Mexico. 

Second — The separation of the States and Territories 
west of the Allegheny Mountains from the Union, and 
the formation of a new republic of which New Orleans 
should be the capital. 

Third — In event of the failure of both these measures, 
the purchase of a great landed estate on the Wichita, in 
the Territory of New Orleans. It consisted of nearly a 
million acres which had been granted, previously, by the 
King of Spain to Baron Bastrop. The seat of this estate 
was the old Spanish Fort Miro where dwelt, as we have 
seen, a population of four hundred people. There Burr 
contemplated the establishment of a colony of wealthy and 
intelligent individuals, where he might gather around him 
a society remarkable for its elegance and refinement. But 
the second and third of these schemes were to be sub- 
sidiary to the first. 

At New Orleans he met David Clark, who had been the 
United States Consul at that city in the latter years of the 
Spanish dominion. He had assisted Laussat in preserving 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 247 

order there during the twenty days, in 1803, intervening 
between the surrender of the Louisiana Purchase to 
France and its transfer by the latter country to the United 
States. Clark was so incensed against the Spaniards be- 
cause of the closing of the Port of Deposit at New Orleans 
against the Americans, in 1802, that Burr easily enlisted 
him in his enterprise. 

Returning up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Pitts- 
burg, Burr proceeded to Washington City, where he spent 
the winter. All that he had said and done will never be 
known. Of the three schemes mentioned, he spoke of the 
one most popular and therefore most likely to secure co- 
operation. He led those with whom he conversed 
to believe that there would be a war with Spain, and this 
of all things he most earnestly desired, for it would 
furnish a safe pretext for invading Mexico; that that 
country would be invaded and Texas, if nothing more, 
conquered ; that an organization known as the Mexican 
Association, in New Orleans, desired him to lead them 
against New Spain — an honor which he had declined ; that 
he sought no office within the United States ; that a large 
majority of the people of Mississippi and Orleans Terri- 
tories were disaffected toward the Federal Government; 
that the people of New Orleans were disgusted with 
American rule; that a revolt would take place and that 



248 THE STORY OF THE 

the States and Territories west of the Alleghenies would 
separate from the Atlantic States, But he persisted in 
saying that he had no interest in these things farther than 
in a speculative way. He stopped at Blennerhassett's 
Island on his way up the Ohio but did not see the pro- 
prietor because of his absence in New York. For this 
reason, he, in December, wrote Blennerhassett a flattering 
letter, in which he referred to his talents as deserving a 
higher place and suggested that he ought to engage in 
that which "might increase his fortune and render him- 
self a more important individual to society." Blenner- 
hassett was much pleased and replied to this letter desiring 
"to be admitted into a participation in any speculation 
which might present itself to Burr's judgment as worthy 
to engage his talents." This meant, as Blennerhassett 
afterward explained, "not only a commercial enterprise 
or land purchase, but a military venture as well." 

Let us briefly notice the southwest border in the year 
1806, at which time trouble existed between the United 
States and Spain growing out of the dispute regarding 
the boundary between the Territory of Orleans and the 
Province of Texas, the latter then a part of New Spain. 
The Spanish army on the Texan frontier was commanded 
by General Simon de Herrera, who sent detachments into 
the region east of the Sabine claimed by the United States 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 249 

as the boundary line between the two countries ; occupied 
the old French town of Bayou Pierre on Red River ; ar- 
rested American citizens and sent them under military 
escort to be confined at San Antonio and in other Texan 
jails ; drove back the American exploring- expedition under 
Freeman when ascending the Red River in the interest of 
geography and science, and acting under orders from the 
President of the United States. And Spanish soldiers 
had cut down the stars and stripes in the chief town of 
the Caddoe Indians, who had hoisted the American flag 
in evidence of their allegiance to the United States Gov- 
ernment. When these things were known at Washington 
City, President Jefferson ordered General Wilkinson to 
send the regulars to the Sabine frontier. The advance 
was made under Colonel Thomas H. Gushing, who, on 
his arrival at Natchitoches, wrote General Herrera, under 
date of August 5th, demanding that he withdraw the 
Spanish troops from the east side of the Sabine River, 
and added that, after this warning, should these troops 
continue within the territory of the United States, "it will 
be my duty to consider you as an invader of our territory 
and act accordingly." To this Herrera replied the next 
day, saying: "It is true that I have crossed the Sabine 
River with a detachment of troops belonging to the King 
with orders from the Captain-General. -^ '"' '•' I hold 



250 THE STORY OF THE 

myself responsible * * ''' to the orders that govern 
me, and if your Excellency makes any infringement, you 
alone will be answerable." 

On the 26th of August, Claiborne, the Governor of the 
Territory of Orleans, wrote Herrera, charging him, 
among other things, with the invasion of American terri- 
tory, the arrest of citizens of the United States and the 
destruction of the stars and stripes, and saying: "If the 
officers of Spain persist in these aggressions, your Ex- 
cellency will readily anticipate the consequences ; and if 
the sword must be drawn, let those be responsible whose 
unfriendly conduct has rendered it indispensable." This 
communication was sent by Colonel Henry Hopkins, the 
Adjutant-General of the Territory of Orleans. Herrera 
made a reply to this two days later, in which he admitted 
all the charges made by Claiborne and closed with the 
declaration that : "If I am provoked to it, I shall en- 
deavor to preserve the honor of my troops, and to fulfil 
the obligation with which I am invested." Claiborne now 
sent a second communication in which he demanded, in 
the name of the American Government, the release of its 
citizens confined at San Antonio, and declared that, if 
driven to it "by the unjust aggressions of the forces of 
his Catholic Majesty, the troops of the United States will 
endeavor to maintain their own and their country's 
honor." 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 251 

President Jefferson was kept advised of these condi- 
tions, and General Wilkinson was ordered to call on the 
Territories of Mississippi and Orleans for a corps of five 
hundred volunteer cavalry* and hasten to the frontier. 
This he did and established his headquarters at Natchi- 
toches. From there on the 24th of September he wrote 
Antonio Cordero, the Spanish Governor of Texas, and 
after reviewing the acts of the Spaniards in occupying 
the country east of the Sabine, closed by saying: 'T owe 
it to my own fame and to the national character to warn 
you that the ultimate decision of the competent authority 
has been taken, that my orders are absolute, and my de- 
termination fixed to assert and (under God) to sustain 
the jurisdiction of the United States to the Sabine River 
against any force which may be opposed to me." Such 
was the threatening attitude of affairs existing on the 
Sabine frontier in the autumn of 1806, when a clash of 
arms and a consequent war between the two nations were 
imminent at any moment. 

Meantime, it was a busy year for Burr, who, by cor- 
respondence and through his agents, who were to cast 
their fortunes with his, actively promoted his schemes in 



*These troops were immediately enlisted, and Jefferson in his message to 
Congress. December 2d, 1806. said of them: "The method in which they 
responded did honor to themselves and entitled them to the confidence of 
their fellow-citizens in every part of the Union." 



252 Tllll STORY OP TliE 

the West. Writing Blennerhassett under date of April 
15, 1806, he referred to the purchase of lands in the 
Southwest and then mentionedi another enterprise, of 
which he said : *'No occupation which will not take you 
off the continent can interfere with that which I have to 
propose." This was the formation of a Southwest Em- 
pire of which he should be the head. Napoleon was, at 
that very moment, erecting on the ruins of a monarchy 
out of which had grown a temporary republic, an empire 
as vast as the European continent. Why not Burr do 
this in America? This was his hope, his ambition. His 
military genius, his greed for power and fame svere all 
aflame, and he was dreaming of the time, as he thought, 
so near at hand when he should be the sovereign of a new 
and mighty domain. He would cross the Alleghenies ; 
descend the Ohio ; make Blennerhassett Island the rally- 
ing point ; gather the malcontents, the disaffected, the 
chivalrous and adventurous ; organize an army ; proceed 
down the Mississippi ; occupy New Orleans ; muster an 
insurrectionary army in the Lower Mississippi Valley ; 
march to the western boundary of the Louisiana Pur- 
chase, where a state of war then almost existed; cross 
the Sabine River into Mexico, or, if aided by the British 
fleet, land at Vera Cruz ; conquer the provinces in detail ; 
incite the inhabitants to war against their rulers; enter 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 253 

the City of Mexico, drive out the Spanish officials, and 
as monarch of the conquered country seat himself on the 
ancient throne of the Montezumas. Then, to this he 
would annex the Mississippi \ alley States and Terri- 
tories, and thus establish a great and glorious empire 
stretching away from the Alleghenies to the Pacific, of 
which the Louisiana Purchase, in which the germs of 
republican government w^re but beginning to be planted, 
was to be a part. Such w^as the dream of Burr in the 
spring of 1806. 

But, alas ! how delusive is hope ! He "had touched 
the full meridian of glory" and was now "hastening to 
his setting." He "had trod the ways of glory and 
sounded the depths and shoals of honor," and now he 
turned his exhaustless energies to the West. From Phila- 
delphia, in July, J 806, with the enthusiasm of a con- 
queror, he wrote a lengthy cipher-letter to General Wilk- 
inson. This contained important details ; it declared that 
the necessary funds were obtained ; that the enterprise 
had actually commenced ; that Burr would go to the Ohio 
in August ; that the protection of England was secured 
and that an agent had gone to Jamaica to arrange with 
the British admiral on that station ; that the fleet would 
meet the land forces on the Mississippi ; that the detach- 
ments would rendezvous on the Ohio about the first of 



254 THE STORY OF THE 

November; that the boats would be at the Falls of the 
Ohio on the 5th with the first five hundred or one thou- 
sand men and that "it will be a host of choice spirits ;" 
that they would arrive at Natchez from the 5th to the 
T5th of December; ''that the people of the country to 
which we are going are prepared to receive us ;" that if 
"\vt will protect their religion" and not subject them to a 
foreign power all will be settled in three weeks ; that 
Wilkinson will be second to Burr only ; and that ''The 
gods invite to glory and fortune." 

This letter was entrusted to Samuel Swartwout, one 
of Burr's faithful lieutenants, who left Philadelphia and 
journeyed to Pittsburg, whence he proceeded to St. Louis 
where he expected to find General Wilkinson, then the 
Governor of the Territory of Louisiana. In this he was 
disappointed, and procuring a skifif he descended the Mis- 
sissippi to Natchez, where he learned that the command- 
ing officer whom he sought was with the army on the 
Sabine frontier, his headquarters being at Natchitoches 
on Red River. Thither he journeyed overland, almost 
across the Louisiana Purchase, and on the 8th of October 
delivered tHe letter. Wilkinson deciphered this. In it 
Burr had said of the bearer : "He is thoroughly informed 
of the plans * * * j^g j^^y 13^ embarrassed in your 
presence ; put him at ease and he will satisfy you/' This 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 255 

Wilkinson did and Swartwout told him that Burr's army, 
then being collected in the western States and Territories, 
would be thoroughly armed ; would number seven thou- 
sand men, and that these were being mustered for the 
purpose of invading the provinces of Mexico; that boats 
were being built on the Allegheny and Ohio; that Major 
Tyler would command those from the first named river 
and that five hundred men would be on them ; that the 
expedition to Mexico would be organized and equipped 
at New Orleans. 

Again Burr was at Pittsburg, whence he descended 
the Ohio and early in August arrived at Blennerhassett's 
Island. Here was discussed the ''colossal scheme." 
Blennerhassett heard of it in detail ; he was a lover of 
freedom, and when Burr painted for him a word picture 
of Mexico redeemed from tyranny by their united efforts, 
''his whole nature was inspired and he entered enthusi- 
astically upon the undertaking, which he regarded as 
honorable and humane." Both engaged energetically in 
the work before them. Blennerhassett was a member of 
the firm of Dudley, Woodbridge & Co., boat builders of 
Marietta, Ohio, and Woodbridge visited the island, where 
he learned the character of the boats desired. Then Burr 
and Blennerhassett went to Marietta, where a contract 
was made for the construction of fifteen boats, ten of 



256 THE STORY OF THE 

which were to have flat bottoms, to be forty feet long, 
ten wide, and two and a half deep ; four were to be fifty 
feet in length, one of which was to be fitted with cabins; 
another was to be sixty feet in length, to be used for 
carrying provisions ; the whole f^eet was to carry five 
hundred men. Light boats to convey a similar number 
were to be constructed on the Allegheny, whiHe six were 
to be built at Nashville on the Cumberlarrd River. Blen- 
nerhassett assumed the payment for the boats and for the 
stores as well. 

From Marietta Burr set out for Chillicothe, whence, 
after a short sojourn he went to Cincinnati, thence to 
Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky — everywhere seeking 
aid and enlisting recruits. In the latter State, on the 
6th of November, 1806, Burr was arrested on the affidavit 
of J. H. Daviess, the United States District Attorney, 
charging him "with being engaged in preparation for a 
military invasion of the provinces of Mexico." He de- 
manded an immediate trial but this he could not get until 
the second of December, when he was defended by Henry 
Clay and acquitted for want of evidence, when, at the 
same time he had men under arms in the Ohio Valley 
and boats were being built and freighted for the very 
purposes of which he had been accused: This acquittal 
was greatly to his advantage, for it produced a popular 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 257 

impression in his favor and a general disbelief in his 
guilt. From Lexington he hastened to Nashville to lock 
after his interests on the Cumberland. While in Ken- 
tucky at this time he was visited by Blennerhassett and 
the Bastrop lands were purchased from an agent named 
Lynch, the consideration being forty thousand dollars, of 
which sum five thousand dollars were paid. Henceforth, 
they declared that the object of the expedition was to 
settle these lands. It is believed that this purchase was 
intended as a place of rendezvous and of retreat in case of 
final discomfiture in the undertaking. In the event of 
success, they were to be used for bounty lands, one hun- 
dred acres being promised to each recruit. 

In the meantime the Government was not ignorant of 
existing conditions in the West, for early in the year 
Jefiferson was in receipt of such information as convinced 
him of "the beginning of this scene of depravity so far 
as it has been enacted on the Ohio and its waters." But 
the mass of what he had received was chiefly in the form 
of letters written by persons from all over the western 
country ''often containing such a mixture of rumors, con- 
jectures and suspicions, as made it difiicult to sift out the 
real facts," and much of this correspondence was received 
under the restriction of private confidence. But, at 
length, enough was at hand to convince the President that 



258 THE STORY OF THE 

"designs were in agitation in the western country unlaw- 
ful and unfriendly to the Union, an'd that the prime 
mover in these was Aaron Burr, heretofore distinguished 
by the favor of his country." Jefferson, therefore, speed- 
ily began an investigation. He appointed John Graham, "^^ 
Secretary of the Territory of Orleans, as the secret agent 
of the Government to discover thq extent of the con- 
spiracy. He had instructions "to spy out and investigate 
the plot hostile to the national interests. * ''' * To 
enter into conference with the civil and military authori- 
ties in the West, and with their aid to discover the 
designs of the supposed conspirators, and to bring the 
offenders to punishment when he should have fully ascer- 
tained their intentions." Graham began his investiga- 
tions at New Orleans and then ascended the Mississippi 
to St. Louis, whence he proceeded to Fort Massac, Nash- 
ville, Louisville, Lexington, Cincinnati and arrived at 
Marietta, Ohio, on the 15th of November. Here he fixed 
his headquarters and made extended observations, visiting 
Colonel Hugh Phelps at Parkersburg, and John and Alex- 



*John Graham, who did so much to detect and expose Burr's enterprise, 
was a Virginian by birth, born at Dumfries, Prince William County, that 
State, in 1774. He received an excellent home training and graduated from 
Columbia College in 1790. He then settled in Kentucky, where he represented 
Lewis County in the Legislature of that State. In 1805 Jefferson appointed 
him Secretary of the Territory of Orleans. He was afterwards Secretary of 
the American Legation in Spain; then on special misson to Buenos Ayres; 
and in 1817, was minister to Portugal. He died in Washington City, August 
6th, 1820. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 259 

ander Henderson at their home, ''Beech Park," on the 
banks of the Little Kanawha, all in Wood County, West 
Virginia, and almost in sight of Blennerhassett's Island. 
At a hotel in Marietta he had a lengthy conversation 
with Blennerhassett, whom he had met in Kentucky five 
years before. Graham's policy was to prevent rather than 
to punish, and when he found him laboring under a de- 
lusion and completely under the influence of Burr, he 
told liim of the treasonable designs of his leader and 
urged him to withdraw from the enterprise. Blenner- 
hassett asked Graham if he had not heard of an asso- 
ciation in New Orleans for the invasion of Mexico, and 
expressed much surprise when informed by him that no 
such organization existed. He admitted that the boats 
being built and freighted at the mouth of the Muskingum 
were designed for the expedition, and declared the en- 
terprise to be a legal one and that he would have on board 
from sixty to one hundred men, and that if molested the 
insult should be repelled with the rifles with which they 
were to provide themselves. Graham replied by saying 
that the constituted authorities of the country would be 
expected, on the part of the general government, to stop 
his boats if they carried an unusual number of men and 
in an unusual manner. Sixteen boats with one hundred 
men, without families but all well armed, were to leave 
Marietta. 



260 THE STORY OF THE 

Graham and others had kept Jefferson fully advised 
of the condition of affairs in the West^ and he now de- 
clared that Burr had but one purpose ; that he had found 
the attachment of the people of the western country to 
the Union too strong to be shaken ; and that his real and 
primary object was "to sieze New Orleans, plunder the 
bank there, possess himself of the military and naval 
stores, and then proceed on his expedition to Mexico." 
Burr had counted far too confidently on the co-operation 
of Wilkinson, who avers that he told Swartwout, when 
he delivered Burr's letter to him at Natchitoches, that he 
could not dishonor his commission by being an accom- 
plice. At the same time he sent a messenger to General 
Harrison, then Governor of Indiana Territory, giving 
him the details of Burr's expedition and requesting him to 
watch the Ohio River therefor ; and at once prepared a 
letter containing the substance of that received from Burr 
and of the statements of its bearer, and dispatched an 
officer with it to Jefferson. The messenger bearing the 
communication to the President left Natchitoches on the 
2 1 St of October and arrived at Washington City on the 
25th of November, having been thirty-five days on the 
journey. Two days later, the President issued a Procla- 
mation, in which he declared that"Sundry persons, citizens 
of the United States * * * are conspiring and con- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 261 

federating together * * >i< to provide and prepare the 
means for a mihtary expedition or enterprise against the 
dominions of Spain ; that for this purpose they are fitting 
out and arming vessels on the western waters of the 
United States * "^^ '^ are deceiving and seducing 
honest and well-meaning citizens, under various pre- 
tences, to engage in this enterprise. =i< * * j have 
thought fit, therefore, to issue my Proclamation, warning 
and enjoining all faithful citizens to withdraw from the 
said unlawful enterprise, as they will incur prosecution 
with all the rigors of the law ; and I hereby enjoin and 
require all officers of the law, civil and military, of the 
United States or of any of the States or Territories 

* * "^ to be vigilant in searching out and bringing to 
condign punishment all persons engaged or concerned in 
such enterprises. * * >k And I require all good and 
faithful citizens -i^ * >k to be aiding and assisting 

* * * in the discovery, apprehension and bringing to 
justice all such offenders, in preventing the execution of 
their unlawful designs and in giving information against 
them to proper authorities." 

This document created great excitement and alarm and 
aroused the people to energy. The eastern States offered 
assistance, and military companies whose organization 
dated back to the days of the Revolution, tendered their 



262 THE STORY OF THE 

services to the President. Copies of the Proclamation 
reached Pittsburg on the second of December, and were 
speedily distributed throughout the Ohio Valley, and the 
contents went far to arrest the schemes of Burr. Orders 
were sent by Jefferson to the Governors of Louisiana, 
Orleans and Mississippi Territories to be on their guard 
and ready to resist any attack which might be made. At 
the same time orders were dispatched to every intersecting 
point on the Ohio and Mississippi from Pittsburg to New 
Orleans for the employment of such force, either of the 
regulars or of the militia, and of such proceedings, also, 
of the civil authorities as might enable them to seize on 
all boats and stores provided for the enterprise, to sup- 
press its further progress and to arrest all persons con- 
cerned therein. On the 8th day of November, General 
Wilkinson, at Natchitoches, was given orders to hasten 
accommodations with the Spanish commandant on the 
Sabine frontier, and then to fall back and guard the im- 
portant points on the east side of the Mississippi. He 
dispatched Major Moses Porter of the artillery with the 
utmost expedition with orders to put New Orleans in a 
condition of defense, and there to repair, mount, and 
equip for service every piece of ordnance ; to employ all 
hands in preparing shells, grape, canister, and musket 
cartridges with buckshot; to have every field-piece ready 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 263 

with horse, harness and drag-rope, and to mount six or 
eight battering cannon on Fort Charles and Fort Henry — 
above and below the city— and along its front, flanks and 
rear. On the 25th of November the entire military force 
of the Territories of Mississippi and Orleans were ordered 
under arms. General Wilkinson, leaving Colonel Cushing 
to follow with the army, left Natchitoches and proceeded 
by way of Natchez, where he made application to the 
Governor of Mississippi Territory for five hundred men 
and then hastened on to New Orleans, where he arrived 
on the 24th, and at once had an interview with Governor 
Claiborne, the latter of whom immediately issued an ani- 
mated address to the citizens, exhorting them to defend 
the city. To this there was a spirited and patriotic re- 
sponse. Money was subscribed, bounties offered sailors, 
guns of the city placed on merchant ships and a fleet 
suddenly improvised to oppose that of the British from 
the West Indies, which rumor said was to aid Burr in his 
invasion of Mexico. Cushing, with the regular troops 
arrived at New Orleans on the loth of December, having 
left but a single company at Natchitoches. Cowles 
Meade, Secretary of Mississippi Territory, acting as Gov- 
ernor in the absence of Robert Williams, issued his procla- 
mation for the arrest of "all the Burr conspirators." 
Governor William H. Cabell, of Virginia, ordered Colonel 



264 THE STORY OP THE 

Hugh Phelps to call a battalion of Wood County (now 
West Virginia) troops into service. Graham hastened 
away from Marietta to Chillicothe, then the capital of 
Ohio, where he had an interview with Governor Edward 
Tiffin, and the legislature in session at that place immedi- 
ately passed an act entitled ''An Act to Prevent Certain 
Acts Hostile to the Peace and Tranquility of the United 
States, Within the Jurisdiction of the State of Ohio." 
Under this Governor Tiffin acted with promptitude and 
ordered Captain Timothy Buell to put the Washington 
County troops under arms, and at the same time directed 
those of Hamilton County to rendezvous at Cincinnati. 
Graham then proceeded to Frankfort, Kentucky, where he 
explained matters to Governor Greenup, who, under an act 
of the legislature on the 23rd day of December, ordered 
out the troops of that State, the greater number having 
instructions to rendezvous at the mouth of the Cumber- 
land River. On the same day, Graham left Frankfort 
for Nashville, where Governor Sevier, then an aged hero 
of the Revolution and Indian wars, speedily put into 
activity the military forces of Tennessee. In the mean- 
time, the authorities of Mexico had learned of the con- 
templated invasion, and her army was put in motion to 
check it on her eastern border. Thus it was that on 
Christmas day, 1806, men were under arms from Pitts- 
burg to the Citv of Mexico. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 265 

The first blow was struck by the Ohio troops at Mari- 
etta, when, on the night of the loth of December, Captain 
Buell captured the entire fleet of boats in the mouth of the 
Muskingum together with all the supplies thereon. This 
materially crippled the enterprise, but the movement was 
not yet suppressed. On the 9th of December, Comfort 
Tyler, one of Burr's chief lieutenants, in command of 
four boats with forty men on board, from Beaver, Penn- 
sylvania, arrived at Blennerhassett's Island. On the next 
nieht information of the disaster at Marietta having been 
received, Blennerhassett, fearing arrest, bade his wife and 
children adieu, went on board, and under cover of dark- 
ness Tyler's boats began the descent of the Ohio. Early 
next morning, Colonel Phelps, with two companies of 
Virginia troops commanded respectively by Captains John 
and Alexander Henderson, arrived at the Island. When 
he learned that the distinguished occupant had fled, he, 
with a detachment of mounted men, dashed away across 
the country to the mouth of the Great Kanawha River, 
hoping there to intercept the boats; but they kept well 
to the west bank of tlie Ohio and in the night passed by 
unobserved. They had similar good fortune at Cincin- 
nati, for they passed there on the evening of the i6th, 
but one day before the assembling of the Hamilton 
County troops at that place. Burr, who had gone to Ten- 



266 THE STORY OF THE 

nessee after his trial and acquittal in Kentucky, was at 
Nashville when he learned of Jefferson's Proclamation, 
and leaving there on the 24th of December with four 
boats and thirty men, descended the Cumberland River 
to its mouth, where he met Blennerhassett. There all 
the boats, eleven in number — four under Burr, four under 
Tyler, two under Davis Floyd, a member of the terri- 
torial legislature of Indiana, and one under Blennerhassett 
— were assembled. Burr, learning of the approach of 
the Kentucky troops, slipped his moorings, and began his 
voyage down the Ohio. On the 31st of December, the 
flotilla lay to at Fort Massac and Burr sent a barrel of 
apples ashore — a holiday present to the family of the 
commandant, Captain Bissel. The night of the 3rd of 
January, 1807, was spent at Fort Pickering on the Chick- 
asaw Blufifs, where the city of Memphis now stands. 
Two days- thereafter, Burr took on board "a supply of 
lead, powder, tomahawks, and other articles of western 
warfare." A short stop was made at Palmyra and then 
the boats floated on and were lashed to the shore at Bayou 
Pierre, in Claiborne County, Mississippi, where on the 
15th they were joined by an additional one having on 
board sixteen young men from Pittsburg, with whom 
came Mrs. Blennerhassett and her two little sons, who 
here joined her husband. There Burr, for the first time, 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 267 

learned of the course of General Wilkinson. The boats 
were dropped down to Petit Gulf, and then, says Safiford :* 
''On a dark and dreary night, in the month of January, 
as the flotilla pushed slowly from the landing at Petit 
Gulf, might have been observed the master-spirit of the 
expedition seated on a rough stool, in the inclement cabin 
of a flatboat, lighted only by the cheerless rays of a 
solitary candle and the decaying embers of a rudely con- 
structed fireplace. With his face buried in his hands, 
while his elbows rested on a table of unplaned boards, he 
who had heretofore braved the disappointments which 
had attended his undertaking with a fortitude that as- 
tonished while it gave confidence to his followers, now 
sat gloomy and dejected. Upon what he mused is beyond 
the ken of human prescience ; but, starting suddenly from 
his revery, he caught up an axe and directed his attendant 
to make an opening in the side of the boat. Through 
this, in the silence of night, when he supposed there was 
none to witness, the chests of arms for the expedition 
were silently sunk beneath the waters of the Mississippi." 
On the 29th the boats were lashed to the western shore 
— that of the Louisiana Purchase — nearly opposite the 
mouth of Cole's Creek, thirty miles above Natchez, and 
there George Poindexter, Attorney-General of Missis- 



*See William H. Safford's "I,ife of Harman Blennerhassett", p. 117. 



268 THE STORY OF THE 

sippi Territory, acting in compliance with the proclama- 
tion of its acting Governor, Cowles Meade, arrested 
Aaron Burr and took him to the town of Washington, 
the capital of the territory, where an examination at once 
began. But it was shown that the crimes with which he 
was charged were those of treason against the general 
government, and not a violation of the laws of Missis- 
sippi Territory. Again Burr was free. But learning 
that Governor Williams would cause him to be arrested 
a second time, he fled to the boats. Once more he and 
Blennerhassett were together. Either might have ex- 
claimed with Campbell's "Exile of Erin" : 

"Sad is my fate, sighed the heart-broken stranger, 
The wild deer and wolf to a covert can flee, 
But I have no refuge from famine and danger, 
A home and a country remain not to me." 

Burr took leave of his few remaining followers, whom 
he advised to shift for themselves, and was rowed twenty 
miles in a skiff by John Dana, of Belpre, Ohio, landed 
on the left bank of the Mississippi, and mounted on horse- 
back, he began a journey to the eastward. Governor 
Williams offered two thousand dollars for his apprehen- 
sion. This was accomplished on the i8th of February 
and he was taken to Fort Stoddard on the Tombigbee 
River, and thence conveyed as a prisoner a thousand miles 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 269 

to Riclimond, Virginia, where he was confined in the 
penitentiary of that State. Blennerhassett attempted to 
return to his island home but was arrested in Kentucky 
and taken to Richmond, where he, too, was confined in 
Prison. Burr was acquitted after a trial lasting six 
months — one of the most remarkable in all the annals of 
American jurisprudence. Blennerhassett was never ar- 
raigned. Thus ended — before it was begun — the Great 
Southwest Monarchy, of which Burr was to have been at 
the head ; Daniel Clark, its treasurer ; General Wilkinson, 
its Secretary of War; and Blennerhassett, its Minister to 
Great Britain. If the Burr-Blennerhassett Conspiracy 
had occurred four years earlier — in 1802 — when the 
Spanish authorities had closed the port of New Orleans 
against the deposit of western merchandise, the course 
of American history might have been changed. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF LITERATURE IN THE 
LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

The faint beginnings of literature form a subject of 
much interest in every part of the world — and no less so 
in the Louisiana Purchase. The first author who resided 
there was Le Page du Pratz, who came to Louisiana in 
1 718, in the first ship sent out by the Company of the 
Indies. He spent a few months in the vicinity of New 



270 THE STORY OF THE 

Orleans, then removed to Natchez, where he resided until 
the year of the massacre, when he returned to New 
Orleans. His official position was that of Superintendent 
of the King's Plantations and he was the first agriculturist 
worthy of the name in the Mississippi Valley. He re- 
mained at New Orleans until 1734, when the office was 
discontinued, and he went home in the King's ship "La 
Gironde," having spent sixteen years on the banks of the 
Mississippi. On his arrival in Louisiana he acquired a 
knowledge of what had transpired there since 1700, and 
after his return to France he continued to obtain informa- 
tion therefrom until 1757, when his ''History of Louisi- 
ana," in two volumes, was published in France. An Eng- 
lish translation was printed in London in 1768. His 
work is the basis of that of all later writers for the 
period which it covers. 

In 1753, the first literary production of the Louisiana 
Purchase was written in New Orleans by M. Villeneuve, 
an officer of the garrison of that place. It was a pamphlet 
containing a description of an aged Indian father — a 
Chickasaw — who suffered death that his son might be 
spared. It related that the Chickasaw's son had killed a 
warrior of another tribe. In retribution, the people of 
the murdered warrior demanded the young Chicksaw's 
life — but he could not be found, and in his stead, the 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 271 

aged father, by his own request, was put to death, thus 
yielding up his own Hfe for the Hfe of his son. 

The first newspaper pubHshed within the Louisiana 
Purchase was La Monitcur, issued at New Orleans in the 
year 1794, and printed in the French language. The first 
newspaper printed in the United States west of the Mis- 
sissippi was the Missouri Gazette, published by Joseph 
Charless in 1808. It is still issued and is now called The 
St. Louis Republic. Charless was the public printer 
for the Territory of Louisiana, and the same year he 
printed the first book published in the Louisiana Purchase. 
It was a bound volume and contained the "American 
Laws in Force in Louisiana Territory." 

MISCELLANY. 

The Missouri Fur Company, composed of Manuel Lisa, 
Lieutenant William Clark and others, was organized in 
1808. The first named had founded Belleview in Ne- 
braska three years before, and here in 181 1 the company 
erected a small fort and made its headquarters. 

In 1808, the territorial legislature passed an act pro- 
viding for the incorporation of St. Louis. This was the 
first incorporated town in the Louisiana Purchase west of 
the Mississippi River. 

Many Spanish officers still remained in the Louisiana 
Purchase, so many, indeed, that under date of August 7, 



272 THE STORY OF THE 

1805, Governor Claiborne wrote Madison, Secretary of 
State, from New Orleans, and said : *'No doubt you will 
be surprised to find so many foreign officers in this city ; 
the fact is. Sir, they are wedded to Louisiana and neces- 
sity alone will induce them to depart !" 

In 1 810, the total population in Upper Louisiana — then 
the Territory of Louisiana — was 20,845, of which all but 
about one thousand were within the present limits of 
the State of Missouri. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 273 



CHAPTER XVn. 
The Earthquake of New Madrid in i8ii. 

The earthquake is the most direful of all physical phe- 
nomena ; no other disaster is so appalling in its effects,, 
and no foresight can avert its calamity, for no warning 
is given to its hapless victims. It has occurred in all 
ages and in every portion of the earth men have been 
terrified by its awful effects. 

The most violent earthquake that has ever shaken the 
American continent, since known to white men, occurred 
on the night of the 15th of December, 181 1. It is known 
as the Earthquake of New Madrid, because the town of 
that name, in the county of New Madrid, in Missouri, 
appeared to be the center of seismic or greatest disturb- 
ance. On the afternoon of that day strange sounds were 
heard on the river and in the forests. The weather was 
observed to be oppressively hot ; the air was misty and 
dull ; the sun was visible like a glowing ball of copper, 
his rays scarcely shedding more than a mournful twilight 
over the scene of river and forest. Night came on, but 
with, as yet, only slight evidences of the mighty catas- 



274 THE STORY OF THE 

trophe which ere the darkness had passed away, was not 
only to convulse the Louisiana Purchase and the Mis- 
sissippi Valley, but was to put in tremulous motion the 
northern shores of South America, to agitate the quiver- 
ing waters of the Gulf of Mexico, to rock the Alleghenies 
and to die away in prolonged vibrations along the shores 
of the Atlantic Ocean. More than three millions of square 
miles were shaken, and the convulsion extended east and 
west, from Florida to Pike's Peak and the source of the 
Missouri. 

Throughout a region lying between the mouth of the 
Ohio and that of the St. Francis, three hundred miles in 
extent, there were terrible heavings of the earth ; the 
country was but thinly settled and the people lived in log 
houses, the most difficult, of all that can be erected, to 
overthrow ; but nearly all of these w ere thrown down. 
If a city of brick and stone had flourished there at that 
time, it would have been reduced to a mass of ruins. 
Lakes of many miles in extent were formed in an Hour, 
while others, previously existing, disappeared. Whole 
tracts of land plunged into the Mississippi and the grave- 
yard of New Madrid with its sleeping tenants was hurled 
into the bed of that stream. In the forests, the trees 
waved together and were split in the midst and lashed 
one with another, covered vast extents of country, while 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 275 

inclining- in every direction and at every angle with the 
earth and the horizon. The ground arose and sunk ; the 
undulations of the earth were like waves at sea, increas- 
ing in elevation as they advanced ; when they had attained 
their greatest height, they would burst and vast columns 
of water and sand would be discharged as high as the 
tops of the trees ; and the chasms thus made in the earth 
were visible many years thereafter. Whole districts were 
covered with sand and became uninhabitable. The boats 
were wrecked along the shores of the Mississippi, and 
thus many lives were lost in addition to those who per- 
ished on land. 

A bursting of the earth just below the town arrested 
the mighty river in its course and caused a reflux in its 
waters by which, in a little time, a great number of boats 
that had escaped destruction thus far, were swept away 
by the ascending current and left upon the dry land. The 
thunder roared, while ever and anon vivid flashes of light- 
ning, glaring through the troubled clouds of night, ren- 
dered the darkness doubly horrible. The sulphuretted 
gases that were discharged from the earth tainted the 
atmosphere with their effluvia, and so impregnated the 
waters of the river for one hundred and fifty miles as to 
render them unfit for use. The people attempted to run 
but were thrown to the earth with great violence. It 



276 THE STORY OF THE 

was a scene never to be forgotten by those who witnessed 
it in the deep forests and in the gloom of darkest night. 
The noise was such as terrified beasts and birds as well 
as man. The village of Little Prairie, some thirty-five 
miles below New Madrid, was a heap of ruins. A hun- 
dred families resided there. The whole region round 
about was covered to the depth of two or three feet with 
white sand, and but two families remained of the whole 
settlement. Water swept over the entire region ; the 
cattle drowned and men and horses were swallowed 
"down deep in the pit." The people lived in houses no 
more that year, but passed the remaining months in bark 
huts and camps like those of the Indians, of so light a 
texture as not to expose them to danger in case of their 
being thrown down. The quakings continued at in- 
tervals for months, and the people remained in their mis- 
erable hovels trembling at the distant and melancholy 
rumbling of the approaching shocks. Evidences of the 
mighty convulsion still remain in the earth's surface after 
the lapse of nearly a hundred years. 

The lands were ruined and the territorial legislature 
of Missouri memorialized Congress by a resolution which 
Edward Hempstead, the first member of Congress from 
the west side of the Mississippi, presented in the House 
of Representatives Saturday, February 12, 1814, and on 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 277 

February 17, 1815, Congress passed a bill by which "all 
persons owning lands in the county of New Madrid, 
which have been materially injured by earthquakes," were 
granted a like quantity of public lands elsewhere in Mis- 
souri Territory. 



278 THE STORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The First States Formed From the Louisiana 

Purchase. 

By an act of the second session of the Eighth Congress, 
passed March 2, 1805, the people of the Territory of 
Orleans were permitted to elect a General Assembly of 
twenty-five members, which should convene as a legis- 
lature in New Orleans on Monday the 4th of the ensuing 
November. It was further provided that whenever the 
Territory had sixty thousand inhabitants, they should be 
permitted to frame a constitution and be admitted into 
the Union. 

In 1810 there were twenty parishes. These were 
Acadia, Ascension, Assumption, Catahoula, Concordia, 
Iberville, Lafourche, Natchitoches, Orleans, Ouachita, 
Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, Rapides, St. Bernard, St. 
Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Landry, St. 
Martin and East Baton Rouge. 

In that year, too, the census showed that the Territory 
had a population of 76,556; and according to the pro- 
visions of the act of six years before, a convention as- 
sembled at New Orleans on the 4th of November, 181 1, 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 279 

and framed a constitution for the proposed State. One 
of its provisions declared that "all printing presses shall 
be free, and every citizen may freely speak, write or print 
on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that 
liberty." Thus was a free press and free speech first 
secured in the Louisiana Purchase. The convention ad- 
journed on the 1 2th of January, 1812, and on the 30th of 
April, — the ninth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase 
— Louisiana, the first State formed within it, was ad- 
mitted into the Federal Union. William C. C. Claiborne 
was chosen by the people as its chief executive. He had 
been -the Governor of the Province of Louisiana as it 
was received from France, and then of the Territory of 
Orleans for eight years — the whole period of its exist- 
ence. The Island of Orleans would have been the only 
part of the State east of the Mississippi had it not been 
that in 1810 the four parishes of West Florida, lying west 
of the Pearl River, north of Manchac Pass and east of 
the Mississippi — New Feliciana, East Baton Rouge, St. 
Helena, and St. Tammany — with a total area of four 
thousand eight hundred and fifty square miles, and ten 
thousand inhabitants rebelled against Spain ; and having 
formed the "Republic of West Florida," applied for ad- 
mission into the Federal Union. This was denied them 
and then Governor Claiborne permitted them to become 



280 THE STORY OF THE 

a part of the Territory of Orleans. Thus they became a 
part of the State as it was admitted into the Union and 
thus its population was increased to 86,556. 

Missouri Made a State. 

On the 4th day of June, 18 i 2, the Twelfth Congress 
passed an act by which it was declared that the Territory 
heretofore called the "Territory of Louisiana shall hence- 
forth be known as the Territory of Missouri" and provid- 
ing a territorial Government therefor. It provided for 
a Governor whose term was three years, a Secretary to 
serve for four years, and a Legislative Council, whose 
members were to serve for five years. Members of the 
territorial legislature, whose term was two years, were 
elected on the 5th of October, 1812, and the Government 
was organized on the 7th of December ensuing at St. 
Louis, which had been the capital of Copper Louisiana 
for forty-seven years, and of the Territory of Louisiana 
for seven years. Benjamin Howard, who had been the 
last Governor of the Territory of Louisiana, now became 
the first Governor of the Territory of Missouri, and is- 
sued a proclamation declaring the Territory to be divided 
into six districts. These, with their population, accord- 
ing to the census returns of 1810, were as follows: 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 281 

Districts. Population. 

St. Charles 3,505 

St. Louis 5,667 

St. Genevieve 4,620 

Cape Girardeau 3,888 

New Madrid 2,100 

Arkansas 874 

Settlements of Hempstead and St. Francis 184 

Total 20,847 

At the time of the formation of Missouri Territory, its 
area included all of the Louisiana Purchase except that 
embraced in the State of Louisiana. It was bounded on 
the south by New Mexico and Louisiana; on the east 
by the Mississippi River ; on the north by British Amer- 
ica ; and on the west by the Rocky Mountains. It was 
thirteen hundred miles in length, and nine himdred in 
breadth ; and its area, as has been stated, embraced more 
than eight hundred thousand square miles. On Monday, 
March 6, 1821, Congress passed an enabling act, authoriz- 
ing the people of Missouri Territory to prepare for state- 
hood and admission into the Union. There were in the 
Territory at that time fifteen counties : Howard, Cooper, 
Montgomery, Pike, Lincoln, St. Charles, Franklin, St. 
Louis, Jefferson, Washington, Ste. Genevieve, Madison, 
Cape Girardeau, New Madrid and Wayne. From these 
delegates were elected to a convention which assembled in 
St. Louis on the 19th of June, 1820. David Barton was 



282 THE STORY OF THE 

chosen president and William G. Pettus, secretary of the 
convention. This body framed a constitution, one of the 
provisions declaring that "schools and the means of ed- 
ucation shall ever be encouraged in this State." Missouri 
was admitted into the Union on the loth of August, 1821, 
having at the time a population of 66,557. Alexander 
McNair was the first Governor of the State and William 
H. Ashley its first Lieutenant-Governor. 

Arkansas a Territory. 

On the second day of March, 1819, the southern bound- 
ary of Missouri Territory was defined by act of Congress 
to be ''a line beginning on the Mississippi River at latitude 
36° north, and running thence west to the river St. 
Francis; thence up the same to latitude 36° 30' north; 
thence west to the western territorial line." It was 
further provided that all of Missouri Territory "lying 
south of this line and north of the State of Louisiana 
shall be known as Arkansas Territory." In 18 10, there 
were in this region but one thousand and sixty-two in- 
habitants ; of these one hundred and eighty-eight were 
in the settlements of Hempstead and St. Francis, and 
eight hundred and seventy-four were residing along the 
banks of the Arkansas River. But in 1820, the popula- 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 283 

tion had increased to 14,242 ; there were then seven coun- 
ties : Arkansas, Clark, Hempstead, Lawrence, Miller, 
Philips, and Pulaski. Arkansas Post was the seat of Gov- 
ernment and James Mjller was the first territorial Gov- 
ernor. Such was the beginning of the third State that 
was to arise out of the Louisiana Purchase. 



The story is told. We have seen the Louisiana Pur- 
chase when it was a land inhabited by wild beasts and 
savage men ; when Castilian knights risked every danger, 
even death itself, in their vain search, in its hidden depths 
for gold, silver, gems, and opulent cities ; and when the 
Gauls first launched their boats upon its majestic rivers, 
traversed its wide extended plains, and then founded civi- 
lized homes on the shores of the Mississippi. We have seen 
how Crozet flung away millions of francs in an effort to 
create a monopoly of the trade of its wilderness inhabit- 
ants ; how John Law and his associates of the West Indies 
Company undertook to pay the national debt of France 
from the revenues to be derived from its mines and 
commerce; how, under royal government, its rulers es- 
sayed to break the barbarian power, and then to extend its 
settlements and improve conditions therein. We have seen, 
too, how France, by a single act of her sovereign at Ver- 



284 THE STORY OF THE 

sailles, gave the entire region to Spain and then feared 
that the magnificent gift might not be accepted ; how that 
nation estabhshed and maintained sovereignty therein for 
thirty-four years, and then, by the^terms of a treaty con- 
cluded at St. Ildefonso, the royal glass emporium of that 
kingdom, gave it back to France, together with the Duchy 
of Parma, in exchange for Tuscany, a province older 
than modern Europe; how Napoleon Bonaparte, as First 
Consul and head of the French Republic, reared upon the 
ruins of a Bourbon throne amid scenes the most terrible 
that ever convulsed the world, transferred not an island 
and a city, but a North American empire to the Young 
Republic of the West, and thus made it possible for it 
to become a mighty power among the nations of the 
earth. Then, too, we have seen how the first germs of 
representative Government were planted therein and have 
watched their growth until the year 1820, when two great 
States — Louisiana and Missouri — and one Territory — 
Arkansas — had been founded, and equal rights for all 
men, with just laws, securing civil and religious freedom, 
had been extended throughout the whole extent of the 
Louisiana Purchase, from which other States — Iowa, 
Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Mon- 
tana, Idaho, parts of Minnesota, Wyoming, Oklahoma, 
and all of Indian Territory — were yet to be formed. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 285 

Well, indeed, may it be said that the Purchase of 
Louisiana was an event of wondrous consequences in 
American history. It was an acquisition the most valu- 
able ever added to the national domain, and it is there- 
fore one of the events of chiefest glory in the annals of 
the nation. Had there been no Louisiana Purchase, there 
would have been no trans-Mississippi States of the Fed- 
eral Union, no Northwest and Pacific Coast States under 
the American flag. To the public spirit, enterprise and 
progress of the people who inhabit that empire, trans- 
ferred by France to the United States, much of their 
natiofial grandeur and greatness is due. Not only this. 
but the Louisiana Purchase has proven, under the search- 
ing providence of God, a mighty w^orld-wide blessing. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX A. 



THE CESSION OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

An Instrument of Writing Signed and Exchanged by the 

Commissioners of the Two Governments and Designed as 

A Record of this Important Transaction — That 

OF THE Cession of the Louisiana Purchase 

BY France to the United States, 

December 20, 1803. 

(See "American State Papers," Vol. V., p. 21.) 

The undersigned, William C. C. Claiborne and James Wilkin- 
son, commissioners or agents of the United States, agreeable to 
the full powers they have received from Thomas Jefferson, Presi- 
dent of the United States, under date of the 31st of October, 
1803, and twenty-eighth year of the Independence of the LTnited 
States of America, (8 Brumier, 12 year of the French Republick) 
countersigned by the Secretary of State, James Madison, and 
citizen Peter Clement Laussat, colonial prefect and commissioner 
of the French government for the delivery in the name of the 
French Republick of the country, territories and dependencies 
of Louisiana, to the commissioners or agents of the United 
States, conformably to the powers, commission and special man- 
date which he has received in the name of the French people 
from citizen Bonaparte, first consul, under date of the 6th of 
June, 1803, (17 Prairial, 11 year of the French Republick) coun- 
tersigned by the secretary of state, Hugues Maret, and by his 



288 APPENDIX. 

excellency the minister of marine and colonies, Decres, do certify 
by these presents, that on this day, Tuesday the 20th December, 
1803 of the christian era, (28th Frimaire, 12 year of the French 
Republick) being convened in the hall of the Hotel de Ville of 
New Orleans, accompanied on both sides by the chiefs and 
officers of the army and navy, by the municipality and divers 
respectable citizens of their respective republicks, the said William 
C. C. Claiborne and James Wilkinson delivered to the said citizen 
Laussat their aforesaid full powers, by which it evidently ap- 
pears that full power and authority has been given them jointly 
and severally to take possession of and to occupy the territories 
ceded by France to the United States by the treaty concluded 
at Paris on the 30th of April last past, (loth Floreal) and for 
that purpose to repair to the said territory and there to execute 
and perform all such acts and things, touching the premises, 
as may be necessary for fulfilling their appointment conformable 
to the said treaty and the laws of the United States ; and there- 
upon the said citizen Laussat declared that in virtue of and in 
the terms of the powers, commission and special mandate dated, 
at St. Cloud, 6th June, 1803 of the christian era (17th Prairial, 11 
year of the French Republick) he put from that moment the 
said commissioners of the United States in possession of the 
country, territories and dependencies of Louisiana, conformably 
to the I, 2, 4 and 5th articles of the treaty and the two conven- 
tions, concluded and signed the 30 April, 1803, (id Floreal, nth 
year of the French Republick) between the French Republic and 
the United States of America by citizen Francois Barbe Marbois, 
minister bf the publick treasury, and the Messieurs Robert R. 
Livingston and James Monroe, ministers plenipotentiary of the 
United States, all three furnished with full powers, of which 
treaty and two conventions the ratifications, made by the first 
consul of the French Republic on the one part, and by the Presi- 
dent of the United States by and with the advice and consent 



APPENDIX. 289 

of the Senate, on the other part, have been exchanged and 
mutually received at the city of Washington, the 21 October, 
1803 (28 Vindemaire 12 year of the French Republick), by citizen 
Louis Andre Pichon, charge des affaires of the French Republic, 
near the United States, on the part of France, and by James 
Madison, Secretary of State of the United States, on the part 
of the United States, according to the process verbal drawn up 
on the same day ; and the present delivery of the country is made 
to them, to the end that, in conformity with the object of the 
said treaty, the sovereignty and property of the colony or province 
of Louisiana may pass to the United States, under the same 
clauses and conditions as it had been ceded by Spain to France, 
in virtue of the treaty concluded at St. Ildefonso, on the i Octo- 
ber, 1800 (gth Vindemaire, 9 year) between these two last powers, 
which has since received its execution by the actual re-entrance 
of the French Republick into possession of the said colony or 
province. 

And the said citizen Laussat in consequence, at this present 
time, delivered to the said commissioners of the United States, 
in this publick sitting, the keys of the city of New Orleans, de- 
claring that he discharges from their oath of fidelity towards 
the French Republick, the citizens and inhabitants of Louisiana, 
who shall choose to remain under the dominion of the United 
States. 

And that it may forever appear, the undersigned have signed 
the process verbal of this important and solemn act, in the French 
and English languages, and have sealed it with their seals, and 
have caused it to be countersigned by their secretaries of com- 
mission, the day, the month, and the year above written. 

Wm. C. C. Claiborne, [l.s.] 
James Wilkinson, [l.s.] 

Laussat. [l.s.] 



290 APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX B. 



Captain William Clark's Letter to His Brother, General 

George Rogers Clark, the First Published Account 

OF THE Lewis and Clark Expedition. 

, How anxious Captain William Clark was to inform his dis- 
tinguished brother of the return of the expedition to St. Louis and 
of his own safety, is attested by the fact that he wrote him 
the same evening, notwithstanding he had not arrived there 
until noon of that day. There was at that time no newspaper 
published west of the Mississippi river, and Captain Clark's 
letter is, certainly, not only the first written, but the first pub- 
lished account of the expedition. That it should appear first in 
a Kentucky paper was to be expected. The observations of the 
editor precede the letter. It is printed here just as it then ap- 
peared. 

[From the Frankfort (Kentucky) Palladium, Oct. 9, 1806.J 

"We congratulate the public at large and the particular friends 
of Messrs. Lewis and Clark, and their enterprising companions, 
on the happy termination of an expedition, which, doubtless, will 
be productive of incalculable commercial advantages to the west- 
ern country, at no very distant period — improve our geographical 
knowledge of those hitherto unexplored regions — and assist the 
government of the Union, in estimating the true value of those 
boundaries which we claim by the purchase of Louisiana. What- 
ever difference of opinion m.ay exist on this point, we are per- 
suaded all think and feel alike, on the courage, perseverance, and 
prudent deportment of the adventurous party. They are entitled 
to, and will receive the plaudits of their countrymen. 



APPENDIX. 291 

''By the mail of this morning we have received from an obliging 
friend, the following letter from Capt. Clark, to his brother, Gen- 
eral Clark, near Louisville. Capt. Clark, did not, perhaps, in- 
tend it for publication; but to gratify, in some measure, the im- 
patient wishes of his countrymen, the General was prevailed upon 
to permit its appearance in our paper of to-day." 

''St. Louis, Mo., September 23rd, 1806. 
"Dear Brother— We arrived at this place at 12 o'clock to-day, 
from the Pacific Ocean, where we remained during last winter, 
near the entrance of Columbia river. This station we left on 
the 27th of March last, and should have reached St. Louis early 
in August, had we not been detained by the snow, which barred 
our passage across the Rocky mountains, until the 24th of June. 
In returning through those mountains we divided ourselves into 
several parties, digressing from the route by which we went out, 
in order the more effectually to explore the country, and dis- 
cover the most practicable route which does exist across the 
continent by the way of the Missouri and Columbia rivers. In 
this we were completely successful, and have therefore no hesi- 
tation in declaring, that such as nature has permitted, we have 
discovered the best route which does exist across the continent 
of North America in that direction. Such is that by way of 
the Missouri to the foot of the rapids, below the great falls of 
that river, a distance of 2,575 miles, thence by land passing by 
the Rocky Mountains, to a navigable part of the Kooskooske 340 
miles; and with the Kooskooske 72, miles. Lewis's river 154 
miles, and the Cohmibia 413 miles to the Pacific Ocean, making 
the total distance from the confluence of the Missouri and Mis- 
sissippi, to the dicharge of the Columbia into the Pacific Ocean 
3.555 miles. The navigation of the Missouri may be deemed 
good — its difficulties arise from its falling banks, timber im- 
bedded in the mud of its channel, its sandbars, and steady rapidity 



292 APPENDIX. 

of its current, all of which may be overcome with a great degree 
of certainty by using the necessary precaution. The passage by 
land of 340 miles from the falls of the Missouri to the Koos- 
kooske, is the most formidable part of the tract proposed across 
the continent. Of this distance 200 is along a good road, and 
140 over tremendous mountains, which for 60 miles are covered 
with eternal snows. A passage over these mountains is, how- 
ever, practicable from the latter part of June to the last of 
September; and the cheap rate at which horses are to be obtained 
of the Indians of the Rocky mountains, and west of them, reduces 
the expenses of transportation over this portage to a mere trifle. 
The navigation of the Kooskooske, Lewis's river, and the 
Columbia, is safe and good, from the first of April to the middle 
of August, by making three portages on the latter river. The 
first of which in descending is 1,200 paces at the falls of Columbia, 
261 miles up that river; the second of two miles at the long nar- 
rows, six miles below the falls; and a third, also of two miles 
at the great rapids 65 miles still lower down. The tide flows 
up the Columbia 183 miles, and within 7 miles of the great 
rapids. 

"Large sloops may with safety ascend as high as tide water, and 
vessels of 300 tons burthen reach the entrance of the Multonah 
river, a large southern branch of the Columbia, which takes its 
rise on the confines of New Mexico, with Colorado and Apostle's 
rivers, discharging itself into the Columbia 125 miles from its 
entrance into the Pacific Ocean. I consider this tract across the 
continent of immense advantage to the fur trade, as all the furs 
collected in nine-tenths of the most valuable fur country in 
America, may be conveyed to the mouth of the Columbia, and 
shipped from thence to the East Indies, by the first of August in 
each year and will, of course, reach Canton earlier than the furs 
which are annually exported from Montreal arrive in Great 
Britain. 



APPENDIX. 293 

"In our outward bound voyage, we ascended to the foot of 
the rapids below the great falls of the Missouri, where we ar- 
rived on the 14th of June, 1805. Not having met with any of 
the nations of the Rocky Mountains, we were of course ignorant 
of the passes by land, which existed through those mountains 
to the Columbia river; and had we even known the route, we 
were destitute of horses, which would have been indispensably 
necessary to enable us to transport the requisite quantity of 
ammunition and other stores to insure the remaining part of our 
voyage down the Columbia; we, therefore, determined to navigate 
the Missouri, as far as it was practicable, unless we met with 
some of the natives, from whom we could obtain horses, and in- 
formation of the country. Accordingly we undertook a most 
laborious portage at the falls of the Missouri, of 18 miles, which 
we effected with our canoes and baggage by the 3rd of July. 
From hence, ascending the Missouri, we penetrated the Rocky 
Mountains at the distance of 71 miles above the upper .part of 
the portage, and penetrated as far as the three forks of that river, 
a distance of 180 miles further; here the Missouri divides into 
three nearly equal branches at the same point. The two largest 
branches are so nearly equal of the same dignity, that we did not 
conceive that either of them could with propriety retain the name of 
the Missouri ; and therefore called these streams Jefferson, Mad- 
ison and Gallatin rivers. The confluence of these rivers is 2,848 
miles from the mouth of the Missouri by the meanders of that river. 
We arrived at the three forks of the Missouri on the 27th of 
July. Not having yet been so fortunate as to meet with the 
natives, although we had previously made several exertions for 
that purpose, we were compelled still to continue our route by 
water. 

"The most northerly of the three forks, that to which we had 
given the name of Jefferson's river, was deemed the most proper 
for our purpose, and we accordingly ascended it 248 miles to the 



294 APPENDIX. 

upper forks, and its extreme navigable point; making the total 
distance to which we had navigated the waters of the Missouri 
3,096 miles, of which 429 lay within the Rocky Mountains. On 
the morning of the 17th of August, 1805, I arrived at the forks 
of Jefferson's river, where I met Capt. Lewis, who had previously 
penetrated with a party of three men, to the waters of the 
Columbia, discovered a band of the Shoshone nation, and had 
found means to induce 35 of their chiefs and warriors to accom- 
pany him to that place. From these people we learned that the 
river in which they resided was not navigable, and that a passage 
through the mountains in that direction was impracticable ; being 
unwilling to confide in this unfavorable account of the natives, 
it was concerted between Capt. Lewis and myself that one of us 
should go forward immediately with a small party, and explore 
the river; while the other in the interim would lay up the canoes 
at that place, and engage the natives with their horses to assist 
in transporting our stores and baggage to their camp. Accord- 
ingly I set out the next day, passed the dividing mountains be- 
tween the waters of the Missouri and Columbia, and descended 
the river, which I since call the east fork of Lewis's river, about 
seventy miles. Finding that the Indians' account of the country 
in the direction of this river was correct, I returned and joined 
Capt. Lewis on the 29th of August at the Shoshone camp, ex- 
cessively fatigued as you may suppose ; having passed moun- 
tains almost inaccessible, and compelled to subsist on berries 
during the greater part of my route. We now purchased twenty- 
seven horses of these Indians, and hired a guide who assured us 
that he could in fifteen days take us to a large river in an open 
country west of the mountains, by a route some distance to the 
north of the river on which they lived ; and that by which the 
natives west of the mountains, visit the plains of the Missouri, 
for the purpose of hunting the buffaloe. Every preparation be- 
ing made, we set forward with our guide on the 31st of August, 



APPENDIX. 295 

through those tremendous mountains, in which we continued 
until the 22nd of September before we reached the lower country 
beyond them; on our way we met with the Olelachshoot, a band 
of the Tuchapaks, from whom we obtained an accession of seven 
horses and exchanged eight or ten others; this proved of in- 
finite service to us, as we were compelled to subsist on horseflesh 
about eight days before we reached the Kooskooske. During 
our passage over those mountains, we suffered everything which 
hunger, cold and fatigue could impose, nor did our difficulties 
with respect to provision, cease on our arrival at the Koos- 
kooske, for, although the Pallotepallors, a numerous nation in- 
habiting that country, were extremely hospitable, and for a few 
trifling articles furnished us with an abundance of roots and* 
dried salmon the food to which they were accustomed; we found 
that we could not subsist on these articles, and almost all of us 
grew sick on eating them; we were obliged therefore to have 
recourse to the flesh of horses and dogs as food to supply the 
deficiency of our guns, which produced but little meat as game 
was scarce in the vicinity of our camp on the Kooskooske, where 
we were compelled to remain in order to construct our perogues 
to descend the river. At this season the salmon are meagre and 
form but indifferent food. While we remained here I was my- 
self sick for several days, and my friend Capt. Lewis suffered 
a severe indisposition. 

"Having completed four perogues and a small canoe, we gave 
our horses in charge to the Pallotepallors until we returned, and 
on the 7th of October we embarked for the Pacific Ocean. We 
descended by the route I have already mentioned. The water of 
the river being low, at this season, we experienced much difficulty 
in descending; we found it obstructed by a great number of 
difficult and dangerous rapids, in passing of which our perogues 
several times filled, and the men escaped narrowly with their 
lives. However, this difficulty does not exist at high water, 



296 APPENDIX. 

which happens within the period which I have mentioned. We 
found the natives extremely numerous and generally friendly; 
though we have, on several occasions, owed our lives and the 
fate of the expedition to our number, which consisted of 31 men. 
On the 17th of November we reached the Ocean, where various 
considerations induced us to spend the winter : we therefore 
searched for an eligible situation for that purpose, and selected 
a spot on the south side of a little river, called by the natives 
Netul, which discharges itself at a small bar, on the south side 
of the Columbia, and fourteen miles within point Adams. Here 
we constructed some log houses and defended them with a 
common stockade work. This place we called Fort Clatsop, after 
a nation of that name who were our nearest neighbors. In this 
country we found an abundance of elk, on which we subsisted 
principally during the last winter. We left Fort Clatsop on the 
27th of March : on our homeward bound voyage, being much 
better acquainted with the country, we were enabled to take 
such precautions as in a great measure secured us from the want 
of provision at any time, and greatly lessened our fatigues, when 
compared with those to which we were compelled to submit in 
our outward bound journey. We have not lost a man since we 
left the Mandans, a circumstance which I assure you is a pleas- 
ing consideration to me. As I shall shortly be with you, and 
the post is now waiting, I deem it unnecessary here to attempt 
minutely to detail the occurrences of the last eighteen months. 

"I am &c, your affectionate brother, 

Wm. Clark." 



APPENDIX. 297 



APPENDIX C. 



Compensation to Lewis and Clark and Their Companions on 
THE Expedition to the Pacific Ocean. 

The following bill was reported in the Lower House of Con- 
gress by a committee appointed to ascertain "What compensation 
ought to be made to Messrs. Lewis and Clark and their brave 
companions for their services in exploring the western waters." 
When on its second reading, a motion was made to amend it by 
inserting after the words "William Clark," the names of William 
Eaton, Priestly Neville O'Bannon, and George Washington 
Mann; but this was lost. The bill was passed by the House 
February 28, 1807; by the Senate, on the 2nd of March, and ap- 
proved by the President the following day. 

"An Act Making Compens.\tion to Messrs. Lewis and 
Clark and Their Companions." 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States in Congress assembled : That the Secretary of War 
be and he is hereby directed to issue land warrants to Meriwether 
Lewis and William Clark, for one thousand six hundred acres 
each; to John Ordway and Nathaniel Prior, the heirs or legal 
representatives of Charles Floyd (deceased), Patrick Gass, Will- 
iam Bratton, John Collins, John Colter, Pier. Cruzatte, Joseph 
Field, Reuben Field, Robert Frazier, Silas Goodrich, George Gib- 
son, Thomas P. Howard, Hugh Hall, Francis Labuiche, Hugh 
M'Neal, John Shields, George Shannon, John Potts, John Bap- 
tiste Le Page, John B. Thompson, William Werner, Richard 
Windsor, Peter Wiser, Alexander Williard, Joseph Whitehouse, 



298 APPENDIX. 

George Drulyard, Troiisaint Charbono, Richard Worfengton, and 
John Newman, three hundred and twenty acres each ; which 
several warrants may, at the option of the holder or possessor, 
be located with any register or registers of the land offices sub- 
sequent to the public sales in such office, on any of the public 
lands of the United States, lying on the west side of the Missis- 
sippi, then and there offered for sale, or may be received at the 
rate of two dollars per acre in payment of any such public lands. 
Section 2. And he it further enacted, that double pay shall 
be allowed by the Secretary of War to each of the before named 
persons agreeably to the time he or they may have served in the 
late enterprise to the Pacific Ocean, and conducted by Messrs. 
Lewis and Clark, and that the sum of $11,000.00 be and the same 
is hereby appropriated to discharge the same, out of any money 
in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated." — See "Annals of 
the Congress of the United States," Ninth Congress, Second 
Session, p. 1278. 



APPENDIX. 299 



APPENDIX D. 



A Poem Commemorative of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. 

The following poem was written by one of America's most 
distinguished poets, in the autumn of 1806, just after the return 
of the expedition to St. Louis. It was published at the beginning 
of the ensuing year in the Pittsburg Magasine, and is printed 
here just as it appeared at that time. The poet afterward lost 
his life in the retreat of Napoleon from Moscow. 

A NEW SONG. 

The Discoveries of Captains L,ewis and Clark. 
By Joel Barlow, Esq. 

Let the Nile cloak his head in the clouds and defy 

The researches of science and time ; 
Let the Nigar escape the keen traveller's eye 

By plunging or changing his clime. 

Columbia ! not so, shall thy boundless dom.ain 

Defraud thy brave sons of their right; 
Streams, midlands and shorelands illude us in vain, 

We shall drag their dark regions to light. 

Look down, sainted sage, from thy synod of gods ; 

See, inspired by thy venturous son ; 
Mackenzie roll northward this earth draining floods, 

And surge the broad waves to the pole. 



300 APPENDIX. 

With the same soaring genius, thy BROTHERS ascend, 

And seizing the car of the Sun; 
O'er thy sky propping hills, and high waters they bend, 

And give the proud earth a new zone. 

Potomac, Ohio, Missouri, had felt. 
Half her globe in their cincture comprest; 

His long curving course has completed the belt 
And tamed the last tide of the west. 

Then hear the loud voice of the nation proclaim, 

And all ages resound the decree. 
Let our Occident stream bear the young hero's name 

Who taught him the path to the sea. 

These four brother floods, like a garland of flowers, 
Shall entwine all our states in a band. 

Conform and confederate their wide spreading powers, 
And their wealth and their wisdom expand. 

From Darien to Davies our garden shall bloom, 
Where war's wearied banners are furl'd. 

And the far scenting breezes that waft its perfume 
Shall settle the storms of the world. 

Then hear the loud voice of the nation proclaim. 

And all ages resound the decree, 
That our Occident stream bear the young hero's name 

Who taught him^ the path to the sea. 



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